EU Chief Presses UAE President on Russia Sanctions Evasion. The European Union’s top official met the leader of the United Arab Emirates on Thursday for talks on topics including the export of sanctioned goods from the Gulf state to Russia, according to people familiar with the matter. Ursula von der Leyen described her discussions with UAE...
Reacting to reports that the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as host of the COP28 climate meeting which begins in Dubai in November, has defined a narrow list of talking points for its officials around climate issues and is aiming to avoid discussion of human rights abuses in the country, Marta Schaaf, Amnesty International’s Director of...
As the annual COP climate summit approaches in Dubai next month, one prominent figure conspicuously absent from past conferences may decide to attend COP28 – Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, there are good reasons why the ICC suspect feels comfortable enough to potentially skirt international justice and visit the UAE. Some context – in March,...
Oil-rich nations are in a quandary – how to keep harvesting their natural riches under the earth, continue to generate vast amounts of revenue, and stay out in front of the coming tsunami of climate action? The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has found a solution: sponsor the annual COP28 conference, position itself as a leader in...
In part one of this two-part article series, the Canary reported that UAE-based carbon credit company Blue Carbon LLC – under the patronage of sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum – has been amassing land agreements with governments across Africa and the Pacific. The organisation’s latest land-grab amounts to some 7.5m hectares of exclusive land development rights in Zimbabwe. Now,...
The COP28 climate summit’s host has launched a neocolonial green-grabbing crusade across the Global South. Naturally, it’s yet another nifty ‘net-zero’ carbon con. In part one of this two-part article, we’ll look at how UAE-based carbon credit company Blue Carbon LLC has been amassing land agreements with governments across Africa and the Pacific. Blue Carbon...
Deep dive: A big year for climate negotiations… or not? Today, we dig into the major tensions building in climate negotiations in the lead-up to the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP 28, which starts in late November. Summer used to be a time of joy. Now, each passing July in the Northern...
The UAE Launders its International Reputation through the COP28 Machine. In November of this year, Sultan Al Jaber, CEO of Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., is to preside over the United Nations COP28 climate talks in 2023 as President-Designate. It will take place in Dubai, UAE. Al Jaber will be directing the COP’s narratives on...
It’s an awkward moment for the oil industry to have at last won its long-sought “seat at the table” in international climate talks. The contradictions and conflicts in play at this opaque moment in the energy transition are mind-boggling. Global temperatures are flaring. War-related market disruptions are fading. The economic outlook is extremely fuzzy. Neither...
Al Gore vs. Oil-Rich Dubai, Host of COP28. Al Gore, former US Vice President, recently held a TED talk in anticipation of COP28. It is the upcoming Conference of the Parties, aka UNFCCC or 2023 United Nations Climate Conference, November 30th–December 12th, 2023, to be held at Expo City, Dubai. It increasingly looks like a...