John Kerry, the US climate envoy, defended the UAE’s hosting of COP28 this year in Dubai, saying that he It is important to include oil-producing countries in the international environmental talks. Climate activists have been increasingly critical of the global fossil fuel industry’s growing influence on climate change, and last year’s summit in Egypt ended in disappointment, as fossil fuel-producing nations, including Saudi Arabia, blocked an effort by other countries, notably the United States and the European Union to include a pledge to phase out all fossil fuels.
Kerry, speaking to the Financial Times, said that the UAE is well aware of what needs to be done to curb climate change, and that “it is unfair to place the blame for what may or may not happen at this point on an oil and gas producing country like the UAE, which has already taken huge strides, historically, to be at the forefront of the transition to green energy.”
“I think it’s not fair to say that the UAE cannot be helpful in bringing other oil and gas companies to the negotiating table, or in helping to develop a credible agenda on combating climate change,” Kerry added. It should be noted that Middle Eastern oil and gas producing countries, including Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, have the highest carbon emissions per capita in the world, surpassing other large emitters including the United States, China and Russia, according to the newspaper.
Last year, Egypt invited oil and gas companies to participate in the official program of the United Nations conference for the first time in its history, prompting a backlash from green groups who argue that polluters should have no place at the climate conference. But Kerry said it was “important that oil and gas companies come to the negotiating table on climate change and be part of the solution, not part of the problem.”