Oil-rich Gulf states have positioned themselves as both champions of climate innovation and guardians of fossil fuel interests — a balancing act experts warn could derail action at COP28 in Dubai. This year’s United Nations climate summit is being chaired and hosted by the United Arab Emirates, a country dubbed “an oil company with a...
Different, more flexible and more regional summits and organisations must emerge to collectively achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, Dr Marc Nebojsa Vukadinovic and Isabelle Négrier write. Every year since 1995, the Conference of the Parties, or COP, has brought together the member states of the United Nations to discuss climate issues. And in...
The political response to the climate crisis remains largely inadequate in the face of heat waves, hurricanes, floods and forest fires that are accelerating and intensifying. The political inertia can be explained, among other things, by the stranglehold of fossil fuel interests on political decision-makers, and the strong influence polluting industries have on the spheres of power in...
UAE hired a PR Company to “counteract negative press” before the COP28. A backlash occurred In July 2023, facing mounting criticism from climate and human rights activists, UAE, the host of this year’s climate change summit, hired a PR company, First International Resources, to “counteract” critics. The contract triggered a backlash and was “terminated before...
NEW YORK – As we move from UN Climate Week to COP28 in Dubai later this year, we must stop the “greenwishing” and “greenwashing” and start thinking about the instruments that will enable the private sector and private investors to channel more capital toward climate resilience and sustainable development. While the public sector has an...
Agriculture, which is responsible for over one third of the world’s emissions, will be under the spotlight at the upcoming COP28 global climate summit in Dubai. In the wake of blazing heat, rising food insecurity and devastating floods, COP28 leaders have released a four-point “food and agriculture” agenda for the conference, which will call for governments to...
New research finds Eni continued to push oil and gas agenda despite knowing potential for climate risk since 1970. Italian oil major Eni knew of the climate impacts of fossil fuel extraction since 1970, according to a report by Greenpeace Italy and advocacy group ReCommon shared with DeSmog. The report comes four months after the...
The fate of Liberia and its forests are entwined. Yet a new climate change deal, set to be announced at the UN climate change talks in Dubai this November, would drive a wedge between our communities and their woodlands. Currently, forests make up more than two-thirds of Liberia’s land area, and are crucial for people’s livelihoods. They were illegally...
The United Arab Emirates’ efforts to bolster its reputation ahead of the annual UN climate negotiations it’s hosting in December haven’t gone particularly well this year. They’ve been playing the long game, Cartie Werthman uncovered for DeSmog yesterday,as lobbying disclosures document how the head of the UAE’s national oil company, Sultan Ahmed “Al Jaber’s ascent to the...
Edelman earned millions polishing the UAE’s green image — which helped propel Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber to the top levels of climate diplomacy. With three months to go until the COP28 United Nations climate talks begin in Dubai, critics have stepped up their condemnation of the decision to put Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, the head of...