As the UAE prepares to host Cop28 this year, some in the West are calling the decision to select a major oil and gas producer to hold the UN climate conference controversial. This attitude stems from a narrow western mindset that is increasingly alienating many in the developing world whose buy-in will be critical towards tackling this global challenge.
What amounts to virtue-signalling from some quarters in Europe and the US puts at risk the entire Cop process. After all, the two most recent meetings, Cop26 and Cop27, were held in Scotland and Egypt – both major oil and gas producers – yet they faced little blowback for it. This underscores a double standard to start with.
Also, at Cop26, the oil, gas, nuclear and coal industries, which together produce 90 per cent of global energy, were de-platformed and not even allowed to be part of the conversation, due to a certain agenda that took over the then Cop office. This undermined the entire meeting and impeded its success.
We also saw finger-wagging during recent Cop meetings at developing countries such as India and others, who have been waiting for the $100 billion in climate finance that was promised to them in Paris, but which has yet to materialise. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has since pushed back, stating that now $1 trillion would be needed. And so, the language changed last year in Sharm El Sheikh. The nations representing 7 billion people across the developing world are no longer talking about just the $100 billion. They are now talking in terms of loss and damage – demanding reparations for the climate change caused primarily by emissions from wealthier nations, and for which they, as developing countries, must now suffer the most.
These developing countries are rightly and understandably asking the industrialised western governments: how can you, who colonised large parts of Asia and Africa, and used our resources to fuel your industrial development, now somehow be lecturing us that we shouldn't have stable power while you enjoy it?
And at the first sign of an energy crisis last year, several European nations turned their coal plants back on, despite advocating against the use of this fuel in recent Cop meetings. And practically all European countries, including the UK, are now subsidising energy consumption even as they spent years lecturing developing countries to avoid doing so, masking this policy with labels such as “energy support” and “price caps” when it is of course a clear energy consumption subsidy.
And many of these same countries are now also approaching African countries, such as Mozambique and Tanzania, desperately seeking the natural gas they had previously refused to import for domestic consumption in the name of climate policy – as long as it now goes to Europe as liquified natural gas, to secure Europe’s own electricity supply.
Such hypocrisy is grating on developing countries who see climate policies being used to stunt their own growth and development – and is, therefore, putting at risk the progress of the entire Cop process to reduce global emissions as a common co-operative challenge. It also leads us to why the UAE is the perfect place to host Cop28 and bridge this growing North-South divide.
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An app by AgUnity gives farmers the chance to use technology to improve their livelihoods. Expo launched a search for similar projects to combat climate change. Photo: Expo 2020 Dubai -
AgUnity lets farmers buy and sell produce on affordable smartphones. The start-up was among the companies that secured funding from Expo 2020 Dubai. Photo: AgUnity -
The Expo Live programme gave grants to companies like Ignitia in West Africa to produce reliable weather forecasts to small-scale farmers. Photo: Expo 2020 Dubai -
Compost Baladi, a Lebanese company, collects food waste so bio waste can be used as fertiliser. The company was among 140 start-ups awarded grants by Expo. Photo: Baladi's Earth Cubes -
The Good Place Pavilion by Expo Live displayed innovations that transformed lives around the world. Photo: Expo 2020 Dubai -
Green energy and sustainable farming projects by grassroots organisations were part of the Good Place Pavilion by Expo Live at Expo City Dubai. Photo: Expo 2020 Dubai -
A mobile application from Bangladesh aims to finance a child's education. The display drew crowds to the Good Place Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai. Photo: Expo 2020 Dubai -
The Good Place Pavilion is one of the legacy pavilions of Expo Live that remain after Expo 2020 Dubai concluded. Photo: Expo 2020 Dubai -
A fresh round for the Expo Live Innovation programme has been announced with successful projects showcased during Cop28 in the UAE. Photo: Expo 2020 Dubai -
Successful entrepreneurs will get to present their projects during Cop28 in the UAE at Expo City Dubai. Photo: Expo 2020 Dubai -
Yousuf Caires, executive director, Expo Live Innovation Programme, said Expo was on the lookout for innovators with solutions to address climate change. Photo: Expo 2020 Dubai -
Desert Control from Norway devised a liquid nano clay substance that increases farm yields, one of 140 projects to win an Expo grant. Photo: Expo 2020 Dubai -
Using kites to capture high-altitude wind and harness energy for remote areas was among the sustainable projects highlighted during Expo 2020 Dubai. Photo: Expo 2020 Dubai
First, the UAE is a big investor in all forms of energy, including renewables. Masdar, one of the world’s largest investors in clean energy and active in more than 40 countries around the globe, was established in Abu Dhabi in 2006 – well before most other countries made major commitments in this space. And Dr Sultan Al Jaber, the Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Cop28 President-designate, was Masdar’s founding chief executive and continues to serve as its chairman. It is a role he assumed well before his current position at Adnoc. Moreover, countries such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia will lead the scaling up of hydrogen because they have the resources, both in terms of finance and in natural gas and low-cost solar energy supply, to be able to advance these technologies of the future.
The UAE’s other advantage is its geography. Being centrally located and equipped with superior logistics and travel links to the world, it is the best place to bring together north, south, east and west – which is necessary for a genuine dialogue. Also worth pointing out are the unique relationships the UAE has developed with a number of Asian and African countries. This is important because, ultimately, the climate fight will be won or lost in these countries, since they will account for almost all of the global growth in carbon emissions going forward.
Cop28 will be held at the same venue that hosted Dubai Expo 2020, which became the first world fair to pay for the so-called “least developed countries” to have their own pavilions. In other words, it represents an inclusive venue where all the countries’ views will be welcomed and respected. For all these reasons, Cop28 is going to be an inclusive and successful Cop, with the UAE proving the ideal host – regardless of the conversations being had in Europe.
