The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has plans to use its role as the host of annual UN climate summit COP28 to broker oil and gas deals with at least 15 nations, a joint investigation from the BBC and the Centre for Climate Reporting (CCR) has revealed.
Documents leaked by an anonymous whistleblower and obtained by independent journalists at CCR, a non-profit investigative journalism organization, include more than 150 pages of briefings for meetings held between Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, president of COP28 and CEO of state-owned oil company ADNOC, and foreign officials between July and October this year. The pages were prepared by the UAE’s COP28 team ahead of the summit, which is due to begin on Thursday.
Al Jaber has held dozens of meetings with senior government officials, business leaders and even royalty in the months leading up to the summit. His COP28 team has used “his access as an opportunity to increase exports of Adnoc’s oil and gas,” CRR said.
Analysis of the documents shows plans by the UAE to discuss fossil fuel deals with at least 15 nations including China, Brazil, Egypt and Germany. The country’s team did not deny that business talks were being planned at the summit, despite the UN body responsible for COP28 stating that hosts of the summit are expected to act without bias or self-interest.