Shock, fury as UAE picks oil firm CEO Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber as COP28 president

Kenyan climate activists and experts have criticised the United Arab Emirates' decision to pick Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, the CEO of Abu Dhabi National Oil Corporation (ADNOC) to serve as the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) president.

This comes as the country warms up to host the world’s biggest climate change summit later this year. This will be the first time in the history of the global climate change summit that the CEO of the world’s biggest oil company will be serving as president.

...“Already, the UN climate summits attract too many fossil fuel lobbyists trying to slow progress and undermine action on climate change. But having an oil boss lead the talks as president would be a step too far,” Mohamed Adow who is the director of Nairobi-based energy and climate think-tank Power Shift Africa told Nation.Africa.

“We need people with a vision to end fossil fuels in charge of these talks, not someone whose job is to sell fossil fuels to the world,” he added.