Hosts under fire over oil deals and Biden a no-show: COP28's Blue Monday

Claims that the United Arab Emirates is using its role as host of the COP28 talks as a forum for preparing oil and gas deals, plus the unrelated but disappointing news that US president Joe Biden will not be travelling to Dubai for the event, made for a rocky run-up to the UN climate summit's kick-off on Thursday.

The previous so-called Conference of the Parties, COP27, held one year-ago in Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt, ended without any commitments on phasing out fossil fuels and failed to tackle the growing gap in perspectives between developing and undeveloped or “global south” nations, effectively passing the buck to COP28.

The chances of forging a meaningful agreement on heading off the continuing rise in global emissions will not be helped by revelations in a BBC report broadcast earlier today (Monday) claiming that the UAE plans to use the UN climate talks as an opportunity to negotiate oil and gas deals.

Leaked UAE briefing documents obtained by the UK-based Centre for Climate Reporting and published in collaboration with the BBC, contained references to such plans with 15 nations.

The appointment of Sultan Ahmed al Jaber as president-designate of COP28 had already been questioned by climate campaigners, as well as blocs of lawmakers in Europe and the US, due to his position as head of Abu Dhabi National Oil (Adnoc), one of the world's biggest oil companies.

Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, the head of the COP20 summit in Peru in 2014, told the BBC that mixing the climate and the business agenda in this way could destroy the element of trust that is needed to achieve progress on tackling climate change in Dubai.

"The president of the COP is the leader of the world in trying to build consensus on behalf of the planet," he said.

"If any president of the COP tries to bring a particular interest, [including] commercial interest, that could mean the failure of the COP."

Critics fear that Jaber’s presidency may serve as a wider platform for those oil-producing nations and companies, many of which lobby for an energy transition with decarbonisation of fossil fuels at its heart.

Core responsibility

Meeting representatives of foreign governments is one of a key responsibilities of COP presidents, but the purpose is to seek an ambitious and effective outcome in terms of curbing emissions of greenhouse gases.

Jaber, who is also chair of Abu Dhabi renewables powerhouse Masdar, sought to address some of these concerns last month when he said that the oil and gas industry must prepare for the inevitable “phase down” of fossil fuels and should not allow itself to become the platform for opposition to decarbonisation efforts.

The UAE team did not deny using COP28 meetings for business talks, and said "private meetings are private", according to the BBC report.

It declined to comment on what was discussed in the meetings and said its work has been focused on "meaningful climate action".

Biden stays home

In an unrelated development, it emerged that US President Joe Biden is not planning to go to the COP28 summit, leaving the job to his top climate advisers, including former secretary of state John Kerry, who has argued that Jaber could play an important role in driving change in the oil industry.

Biden's schedule for Thursday released by the White House, shows him hosting meetings and attending events in Washington DC on Thursday.

Biden, who has placed the fight against climate change high on his domestic and international agenda, attended the previous two summits in the UK and Egypt.