A study by the NGO Global Witness casts a new shadow on the promise of the Emirati Minister of Industry, Sultan Al Jaber, president of COP28 in Dubai and boss of Adnoc, the Emirati oil company. He pledged not to use the climate meeting as a springboard for his business. But, according to the British NGO, the contracts signed by Adnoc during 2023 were numerous.
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While the intersessional discussions – inter-Climate COP – are currently being held in Bonn, there is already a common point between the 28th UN Climate Conference and the 29th which will be held in December. They are both hosted by oil and gas states, the Emirates arabs United and Azerbaijan. Fossil fuels are responsible for a large part of the global warming and these States negotiate climate issues as closely as possible to their interests.
Adnoc has not put its objectives on hold
The graph of agreements concluded or simply sought by Adnoc, the Emirati national oil company, between 2019 and 2024, is eloquent. The number and especially the value of these contracts, concluded or negotiated, have increased significantly from 2023, the year of the Emirati presidency of the Climate Conference. Last November, documents had already leaked, authenticated by the BBC. The NGO Global Witness also relied on the testimony of an anonymous source within the climate negotiations and looked at economic analyses.
A sharp increase in contracts concluded
In total, in 2023, around twenty agreements would have been discussed with a potential value of nearly $100 billion, according to the NGO’s estimates, whether in the form of a contract, buyout or even a joint venture. An amount five times larger than the previous year and four times larger than in 2019, the pre-Covid reference year.
Global Witness also identified at least 17 oil and gas company officials in the preliminary list of “host country guests” at COP28. Among them, the interim boss of BP. Two months after the COP, Adnoc and BP announced the creation of a joint venture in Egypt. Employees of the petrochemical company OMV were also on the list. At the end of February, Adnoc acquired nearly 25% of the capital of OMV. Global Witness sources close to the climate negotiations also highlighted the growing presence of Adnoc representatives in these negotiations. A spokesperson for COP28 responded to Global Witness that their conclusions were only “ unfounded allegations “.
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