Christian Aid questions appointment of oil baron to lead COP28

Dr Sultan Al Jaber. Wiki Image by Arctic Circle

Source: Christian Aid

Christian Aid has questioned the appointment of oil baron Dr Sultan Al Jaber to the presidency of the COP28 climate talks in Bonn.

Responding to the arrival of the Sultan, Mariana Paoli, Christian Aid's Global Advocacy Lead, said: "Having an oil baron running the global climate talks is like putting an anti-vax conspiracy theorist in charge of the response to Covid-19.

"The conflict of interest is obvious and Sultan Al Jaber will have to work hard to prove he's not just using the climate talks to prop up the fossil fuel industry. So far the evidence does not look like he has the best interests of humanity, or even his own people, at heart. After all, it is already baking hot Gulf countries that face an inhospitable future if we don't tackle climate change.

"To address the climate crisis, the President must focus on phase out of fossil fuels production. Emissions from coal, oil and gas cannot be addressed by dangerous distractions such as carbon capture and storage, an expensive technology which has not proved viable at scale, to prevent any reduction in the dirty energy industry from reducing fossil fuel use.

"These false solutions are a dead end. Carbon capture and storage cannot be rolled out fast enough or cheaply enough to be reduce emissions at the scale that is required. Fossil fuels are the cause of our climate crisis and phasing them out as quickly and fairly as possible is the only way we're going to get out of our predicament."