Exclusive: UAE’s Sultan Al Jaber says phase-out of coal, oil and gas would take world ‘back into caves’

Exclusive: UAE’s Sultan Al Jaber says phase-out of coal, oil and gas would take world ‘back into caves’

The president of Cop28, Sultan Al Jaber, has claimed there is “no science” indicating that a phase-out of fossil fuels is needed to restrict global heating to 1.5C, the Guardian and the Centre for Climate Reporting can reveal.

Al Jaber also said a phase-out of fossil fuels would not allow sustainable development “unless you want to take the world back into caves”.

The comments were “incredibly concerning” and “verging on climate denial”, scientists said, and they were at odds with the position of the UN secretary general, António Guterres.

    • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
      37·
      1 year ago

      This is exactly why they hosted it in an OPEC nation; to continue hamstringing the transition from fossils & delaying the impact to their profit margins — the same thing they’ve been doing for the last 50 years.

      • Chup@feddit.deEnglish
        7·
        1 year ago

        There was an article on Washington Post last week explaining COP28 and details around it. Also the reason for the location:

        Why is an oil kingdom hosting COP28?

        The United Nations rotates the location of COPs each year through five regions: Africa, Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Western Europe. This year, it was the Asia-Pacific group’s turn to host, and the United Arab Emirates made an unopposed bid in May 2021.

        Source (Published November 27, 2023): https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/11/27/cop28-climate-summit-dubai/

      • tinkeringidiot@lemmy.world
        2·
        1 year ago

        It’s because UAE volunteered to pay for it all. These things are expensive and no one over age 8 believes a UN event will result in any action, much less international cooperation on climate. Since it’s all just a PR stunt, UAE might as well spend a rounding error of its oil proceeds on having some control over the narrative.

    • Ann Archy@lemmy.world
      6·
      1 year ago

      “Oh, we knew about it all right. But that would have had marginally negative short term effects on very specific parts of the economy, so we doubled down instead.”

  • Additional_Prune@lemmy.world
    21·
    1 year ago

    “verging on climate denial” Verging? And this guy is the president of Cop28? Holy crap. Stick a fork in humanity, it’s done.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
    21·
    1 year ago

    Those sheiks never feel the global warming, they have their AC, and slaves for anything that needs to be done outside.

  • yojimbo@sopuli.xyz
    202·
    1 year ago

    …and just a few hours later: claims of being mistinterpreted (again - Guardian). Poor princeling - never even imagined someone could speak back to him and now has no idea how to act. Maybe shouldn’t have left the cave after all 🤔

  • Nonameuser678@aussie.zone
    10·
    1 year ago

    I know these have mostly been performative for a while but I feel like this one has really symbolised the crossover into entire absurdity.

  • Norgur@kbin.social
    178·
    1 year ago

    I mean, yeah, science doesn’t say “we need to absolutely phase out fossil fuels”, it says “we need to cut back on greenhouse gases”, so we could cut back everything else to achieve that and make mister sultan guy happy and allow him to create another artificial peninsula in the shape of a middle finger this time or whatever… Oooooor, we could cut back on fossil fuels because that’s actually the easiest option. Sorry if my wish for my son to have a planet with a working ecosystem to live on isn’t overriden by your wish for a massive gold Ferrari or whatever you Islamic moneybags like to buy these days…

    • SnuggleSnail@ani.social
      168·
      1 year ago

      Why the twist into xenophobia in the end? The comment could have been 100% on point. Now it’s like Hitler being vegan - nice, but overshadowed by other stuff.

      • Norgur@kbin.social
        2·
        1 year ago

        I replied below with an explanation. I’m not aware of any way my comment could be seen as applying to any other type of person than Saudi Billionaire Oligarchs, so please tell me.if there is some language thing that would make you think my comment could be seen as derogatory to any other person. I’m not a native speaker, so there might be just a language issue.

        As for your comparison: that’s not fitting now, is it. Hitler being vegan (he wasn’t, he was vegetarian) is a minor detail that gets overshadowed by the main course which is mass murder and war.

        My comment is the other way around at best. Let’s not compare the crimes of Adolf Hitler to some bloke on the internet messing up his wording. That’s disrespectful to the people Hitler and his dick face cronies made suffer for no fucking reason.

        • Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world
          84·
          1 year ago

          As opposed to European or American billionaires? Why are you going out of your way to defend a racist comment?

          • Maggoty@lemmy.world
            21·
            1 year ago

            I’m not sure about European ones but in North America they tend to go for understatement and philanthropic PR to keep the public off their back. The only reason I know what they go for in the middle east is studying the area. It’s not racist to point out general tendencies in culture. No one here is accusing them of criminal excess or bad character, just gaudiness. Which you can easily see in Dubai, UAE, or SA. It’s literally on display.

            Also, it’s not a Muslim thing or an everyone in the region thing. It’s specific to a socioeconomic group. Like saying wealthy people prefer to buy cars 50k and up from Volvo, BMW, Audi, and Rolls Royce. There’s nothing wrong with that and it’s easily observable.

          • Norgur@kbin.social
            21·
            1 year ago

            Oh, no one is saying that other moneybags are any different. I bitch about them, too. This time, I was bitching about the moneybags who very insistently call themselves Islamic, so I called them that as well. Especially since they justify a lot of their power and oppressive rules (against women, LGBTQ, etc) with their faith.

            Yet I fail to see how calling those oil oligarch types in Saudi Arabia “Islamic moneybags” would say anything about any other Moslem on this planet, which would make the comment racist.

            If.there is some language thing I’ve messed up, please tell me, as I’m not a native speaker (something that tends to be blissfully ignored so often when someone is flat out called a.racist or whatever)

            • Maggoty@lemmy.world
              21·
              1 year ago

              You’re fine. People are just on edge because Israel is using islamophobic rhetoric to justify bombing hospitals right now.

  • The Barto@sh.itjust.works
    7·
    1 year ago

    Al Jaber also said a phase-out of fossil fuels would not allow sustainable development “unless you want me to take the world back into caves, if you take away our endless flow of money."