Quote Originally Posted by S Landreth View Post
The United Arab Emirates pledged 270 billion in green finance by 2030

Did the climate summit chief deny climate science? 'Ridiculous'


New footage makes the climate summit chairman appear as someone who denies climate science. He himself feels misunderstood.







COP28 chairman Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber is already a controversial choice to lead the climate negotiations because he is also the CEO of one of the world's largest oil companies. (Photo: © Giuseppe Cacace, Ritzau Scanpix
Agnete Finnemann Scheel

Klaus Schjerning Andersen

A two-week-old audio recording has set the stage for the UN climate conference in Dubai today.

In it, the chairman of the summit, Sultan Al Jaber, can be heard making a statement that challenges the scientific premise of the climate fight: namely that we must reduce greenhouse gas emissions dramatically and quickly if we are to avoid the very worst climate changes and perhaps stay below 1.5 degrees global warming.

Precisely the 1.5 degrees is something that the countries of the world have shaken hands on in the Paris Agreement and which numerous scientific reports state is necessary to avoid catastrophic global warming.
Sultan Al Jaber, who in addition to being head of the climate summit is also the head of one of the world's largest oil companies, says in the recordings:

"There is no research or scenarios out there that say that phasing out fossil fuels is what will get us to the goal of 1.5 degrees.

This is in an emotional debate with Mary Robinson, who is chairman of the Elders Group and former president of Ireland.

It is the media The Guardian that first wrote about the audio file, which is also available on Youtube.

In the audio file, Sultan Al Jaber paints a prehistoric picture of the world after a rapid phase-out of greenhouse gases.

- Please help me. Show me the way to a phase-out of fossil fuels that will make room for socio-economic development – unless you want to send the world back into caves," he says.

On the verge of climate denial


The statements have caused frustration among climate scientists.

Bill Hare, director of the global climate institute Climate Analysis, said the statements "border on climate denial."

"This is an extraordinarily revealing, worrying and crass attitude," he told the Guardian.

On social media, UN chief Antonio Guterres was invited to comment on the statement. The well-known American climate scientist Michael E. Mann writes directly to Guterres:

"The COP president appointed by the Emirates, oil director Sultan Al Jaber, ridicules the climate summit. It would be good if you commented on that."............................................ .