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...
New Data: Shut Down 60% of Existing Fossil Fuel Extraction to Keep 1.5°C in Reach. In May 2021, the International Energy Agency (IEA) sent shockwaves through the fossil fuel industry and its allies in government. It concluded that no new coal mines or oil and gas fields should be developed if the world is to hold global...
Oil companies are hiring TikTok influencers to court young people. The TikTok star Nora Capistrano Sangalang is best known for posting videos about her grandson, in which she describes herself as “our Filipino grandma” and a “granfluencer.” But in September, she posted something that surprised and irritated some of her 2.3 million followers across TikTok and Instagram: an advertisement for the oil...
UN climate summit host UAE failed to report methane emissions to the UN. The United Arab Emirates will host the crucial Cop28 UN climate summit in December. It has failed to report its emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas methane to the UN for almost a decade. This was revealed by the Guardian. Its state oil...
From fossil fuels to plastic addiction: unveiling the hidden link impacting our world. There is no shortage of plastic objects in our daily lives; the average American consumer uses and then throws away about 110 pounds of plastic every single year. Plastics are ubiquitous, but oftentimes consumers are misinformed about where they come from, and where they...
Why on earth is a giant petrostate hosting Cop28? Putting the United Arab Emirates in charge of this year’s international climate conference is like getting a tobacco company to lead an anti-smoking convention, fumes Anthony Harwood. Two glaring contradictions leap out when you consider why on earth the United Arab Emirates is hosting this year’s international climate...
A PR firm says it may tap US Jews to boost the image of UAE oil bosses ahead of the climate meeting. A contract signed by former ADL-Israel head Zev Furst and Abu Dhabi’s Masdar proposes mobilizing ties to the US Jewish Establishment’ to improve optics in the run-up to the UN’s COP28 summit. A...
COP28: ‘Having a climate summit in an oil-and-gas country can jeopardise the outcomes’. CIVICUS discusses the hopes and roles of civil society at the forthcoming COP28 climate summit with Harlee Richards, strategist at Follow This. Follow This is a Dutch organization representing over 10,000 green shareholders in oil and gas companies. It supports investor stewardship...