As Cyclone Biparjoy approached southern Pakistan this week, top Pakistani negotiator Nabeel Munir told governments at mid-year UN climate talks in Bonn it felt like he was “conducting a primary school class”, amid squabbling over the meeting agenda. The evening before the two-week negotiations were due to end in the German city on Thursday, a...
BARCELONA – As Cyclone Biparjoy approached southern Pakistan this week, top Pakistani negotiator Nabeel Munir told governments at midyear U.N. climate talks in Bonn that it felt like he was “conducting a primary school class,” amid squabbling over the meeting agenda. The evening before the two-week negotiations were due to end in the German city on...
BERLIN – Diplomats pushing for stronger climate action walked away from a two-week preparatory meeting for COP28 climate summit disappointed by inter-country bickering and what some said was a lack of ambition from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), 2023’s host nation. Negotiators from Europe and climate-vulnerable nations were looking for two things at the Bonn...
The UAE’s Cop28 presidency has gone all Clint Eastwood this week, by asking The Good, The Bad and The Ugly to be involved in the climate talks. Wearing the white hat on the new 31-member Cop28 advisory board are the likes of Hindou Ibrahim, a climate campaigner from Chad, and Saleemul Huq, who has called fossil fuel...
Campaigners said the UAE’s opposition to zero emissions by 2050 was “alarming” given the country will host Cop28 climate talks in December The United Arab Emirates tried to weaken global shipping’s climate target last week, sparking fears that it will lack ambition as host of the Cop28 climate summit. According to four sources in the...
The president of the UN’s COP28 climate conference has said that he sees a future for fossil fuels – even as scientists say the world must rapidly transition to clean energy – in remarks that have raised concerns about a backsliding on climate commitments. Sultan Al Jaber, who will oversee the UN’s COP28 climate summit in Dubai in November,...
Talk about letting the fox into the henhouse. Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber may be a competent politician, diplomat and business leader. But whether the United Arab Emirates’ minister of industry and advanced technology is well suited to chair the forthcoming UN climate summit, COP28, in Dubai this November is a different matter. Besides his cabinet duties, al-Jaber...
The Gulf oil and gas exporter is going big on renewable energy investment and food security, while expanding hydrocarbon production. If there was a sign the United Arab Emirates is taking its role as host of the next UN climate talks seriously, the 1,073 delegates it registered to attend the Cop27 summit in Egypt would be it....