Who is Sultan al-Jaber, UAE oil boss leading COP28?

The upcoming COP28 talks in Dubai in December are already mired in controversy. A report has said that the UAE is planning to use the climate talks – slated to be held in Dubai from 30 November to 12 December – to strike deals in oil and gas. That Sultan al-Jaber, UAE envoy on climate change and the country’s chief oil executive, will lead the UN-backed talks has only added fuel to the fire. But who is Jaber? What do we know about him? Let’s take a closer look: Jaber was born in 1973 in Umm al Quwain – one of the lesser-known emirates. He stands out in the UAE for the number of high positions he holds. He has been the CEO of UAE energy giant ADNOC since 2016.

Nicknamed Dr Sultan, he has a PhD in business and economics from Britain’s Coventry University.

He also studied in the United States. In 2006, he was appointed as the founding executive of Masdar – the UAE’s renewable energy vehicle. Jaber then set off on a global fact-finding mission to assess obstacles and opportunities. As part of the tour, he met Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, who was then president of Iceland, which, drawing on ample geothermal reserves, has managed to more than meet its energy needs through renewable sources. “He told me he had this vision that he wanted to make Abu Dhabi a centre for a renewable energy transformation,” Grimsson told Reuters. “On the face of it, it was almost an absurd proposition. But there was something in his eyes, and his enthusiasm that made me believe that he was serious.” Masdar has investments in over 40 countries and is still chaired by Jaber, its founding CEO. In 2009, Jaber was appointed by then United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-Moon to his Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change. [caption id=“attachment_13436962” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Dubai will host the COP28 summit from 30 November to 12 December. Reuters[/caption] The next year, Jaber was appointed the UAE Special Envoy for Climate Change for the first time. Jaber held that position till 2016. In 2012, Jaber received the UN Champions of the Earth award for his advancing clean energy technologies to mitigate the threats of climate change. In 2015, Jaber played a  critical role at the milestone COP21 that took place in Paris. Jaber received a lifetime achievement award from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his contributions to energy security, building bridges to emerging Asian economies and reshaping traditional energy business models. In 2020, he was reappointed as the UAE’s Special Envoy for Climate Change and was also Appointed as the UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology. In 2023, Jaber  was appointed the COP28’s president-designate. Critics cry conflict of interest Jaber’s position as the head of the COP28 has been slammed by many. Jaber’s claim that there can be no orderly transition to a low carbon economy without the inclusion of fossil fuel leaders in the climate conversation has alarmed many. As per Time Magazine, over 100 members of the European Parliament and the US Congress had in May called on him to resign and said that he “severely jeopardized” the COP process. Greta Thunberg called Jaber’s appointment as president-designate to COP28 in January “completely ridiculous”, while former US vice president Al Gore, a long-time climate activist, has said fossil fuel interests have taken over the UN climate process. Time Magazine quoted Gore as saying that oil interests “have brazenly seized control of the COP process.”

“He’s a nice guy. He’s a smart guy. But a conflict of interest is a conflict of interest,” Gore added.

However, his supporters say he has an ability to get things done and straddle divides that will deliver climate action. “I believe that he’s fully committed,” Maros Sefcovic, EU’s climate policy official told Time. “They have an unimaginable challenge ahead of them,” says Tina Stege, climate envoy for the Marshall Islands, “but our expectations are high.” When marathon deliberations in Egypt’s picturesque city of Aswan in October struggled to reach an agreement on a fund to help countries recover from damage caused by climate change, Jaber leapt in. In a virtual intervention, he told the 24-member UN committee debating the fund that billions of lives depended on getting a deal. Jaber’s message to the delegates made very clear he would not accept failure. “You could say that he used the notion of the hard deadline to help bang heads,” Avinash Persaud, negotiator for Barbados, who was a member of the technical committee and present at the meeting, told Reuters. Those who have worked with Jaber have said he is as a realist who looks towards scientific data and factual evidence to guide his decision-making. Jaber says his experience as an oil boss adds to his ability to leverage solutions. [caption id=“attachment_13436612” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Concerns over fossil fuel interests’ influence at the negotiations in Dubai have been voiced by climate campaigners, who have brought up Sultan al-Jaber’s position as head of an oil business Image Courtesy AFP[/caption] Two months after being appointed COP28 leader, Jaber in March flew to Houston to the CERAWeek energy industry event where he urged the world’s fossil fuel bosses to join the fight against climate change, borrowing a famous line from a U.S. astronaut aboard a damaged spacecraft during the Apollo 13 mission in 1970. “Houston, we have a problem,” Jaber told the nearly 1,000 attendees, urging the industry to bring emissions under control. He has since worked to make more than 20 companies across the oil and gas sector and heavy industry agree to commit to curb emissions at COP28, after convening more than 60 top executives from the oil and gas, cement, aluminium and other heavy industries in Abu Dhabi this October. Al Jaber and ADNOC both insist there is no conflict of interest. CNN quoted the company as saying Jaber’s “20-year career across the renewable energy and conventional energy sectors” and his decade-long history in climate diplomacy means that there is no one more qualified to hold the position. Jaber himself does not seem to be immune to the criticism. “You asked me, is it fair? It is absolutely not fair,” Jaber told Time. “My whole track record and my experience have been centred around ­sustainability, economic diversification, project management, and delivery.” Will Jaber be successful? That remains the question. A final deal on the commitment is expected to be announced at COP28. Success at COP28, whose first task will be to formally make Jaber its president, will depend on achieving collaboration between the world’ biggest carbon emitters China and the United States. Jaber has devoted himself to shuttle diplomacy between the two and drew on a personal rapport with both U.S. climate envoy John Kerry and Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua to help align around significant methane emission reduction commitments. The even bigger issue of ending the divisions over the continued role of hydrocarbons, however, has yet to be solved. Countries, such as the UAE, say coal, oil and natural gas must have a continued role, combined with technology to capture their emissions until new energy systems can sustain the world’s needs. On the other side of the divide are countries that say phasing out fossil fuel is the only way to achieve the Paris goal of limiting global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius while aiming for a cap of 1.5C. Jaber has maintained a phase down of fossil fuels is inevitable and essential, but as part of a comprehensive, thought-out energy transition plan that takes into account the circumstances of each country and region.

“One size fits all will not work so we need to be flexible and agile,” he told Reuters in October.

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“We should raise ambition and keep 1.5 as our north star so no-one loses sight.” As the Time Magazine piece stated, “Realism to Al Jaber means accepting that a move away from fossil fuels will happen only when the economics change. In the meantime, there’s profit for him to make in oil. For all our sake, let’s hope that changes soon.” Still, others remain sceptical about the UAE. Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East North Africa Program at Chatham House, told CNN that the UAE is ultimately looking out for itself. “It needs to buy more time to diversify its economy further and wants to capitalise on its energy resources for as long as possible,” Vakil told CNN. “By positioning itself at the forefront of the conversation, the UAE helps preserve its own interests while seeming to champion those of the Global South.” The BBC quoted the COP28 team as saying, “The fact that Dr Sultan al-Jaber holds a number of positions alongside his role as COP28 president-designate is public knowledge and something we have been transparent about from the outset. “Dr Sultan al-Jaber is singularly focused on the business of COP and delivering ambitious and transformational climate outcomes at COP28,” the statement said, adding it would be a “distraction” to suggest that the work he has undertaken has not “been focused on meaningful climate action”. With inputs from agencies