The UAE has named Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber as President-Designate for Cop28.
The UAE will host the annual UN climate summit at Expo City, Dubai, from November 30 to December 12 this year.
Al Jaber is the Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and UAE special envoy for climate change.
UAE Cop28 team
Shamma Al Mazrui, UAE Minister of State for Youth Affairs, and Razan Al Mubarak, President of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), will join his high-level Cop28 team as the Youth Climate Champion and UN Climate Change High-Level Champion.
These appointments come at a pivotal moment, as the world faces increasing climate impact and challenges to energy, food and water security and reversing biodiversity loss.
Limiting global warming to 1.5C will require significant reductions in emissions, a pragmatic, practical and realistic approach to the energy transition and more help for emerging economies.
The UAE is committed to multilateral cooperation and an inclusive process that brings together emerging economies with developed nations, civil society, and business to achieve the solutions and the pace of change required.
The announcement further highlights the UAE’s regional leadership in climate action and its role as a global advocate for clean energy.
The UAE is home to three of the largest and lowest-cost solar projects in the world and has invested more than $50bn in renewable energy projects across 70 countries, with plans to invest a minimum of $50bn over the next decade.
As the first country in the region to ratify the Paris Agreement, the first to commit to an economy-wide reduction in emissions, and the first to announce a Net Zero by 2050 strategic initiative, the UAE is committed to raising ambition in this critical decade for climate action.
The UAE is honoured to have been endorsed as the host for COP28.
Following the official announcement of the UAE as the host of COP28, a National Higher Committee was formed on 23rd June, 2022, to oversee preparations for the conference.
The Committee is chaired by Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and includes senior officials from several authorities.
Dr. Al Jaber is the Vice Chairman of the Committee that is responsible for supervising COP28 preparations through a comprehensive and integrated plan in line with the UAE’s focus on sustainable development, collaboration, and cooperation with the international community, to ensure inclusion across all parties and to enable practical solutions that will bring long-term socioeconomic benefits to the region and the world.
The UAE Net Zero by 2050 strategic initiative represents a critical way forward for the UAE’s future sustainable economic development, will enable the creation of new industries and skills, and is central to the UAE’s contribution to achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Dr. Al Jaber has played a role at more than ten COPs, including the historic Paris COP21 in 2015.
He brings to this task two decades of executive business and leadership experience in government, climate policy and across the renewable and conventional energy sectors.
Dr. Al Jaber is the first CEO to ever serve as COP President, having played a key role in shaping the country’s clean energy path.
As the founding CEO of Masdar, he has overseen its mandate to accelerate the adoption of renewables within the UAE, across the region and globally.
To date, Masdar has made substantial contributions to the UAE’s renewable energy targets, playing a key role in expanding the country’s portfolio with clean energy investments in over 40 countries, including several developing countries in Africa and Asia and in vulnerable island states.
As CEO of Adnoc since 2016, he has played a transformative role in decarbonising and diversifying the company’s operations and investments, placed sustainability at the heart of its business and spearheaded a drive to make today’s energies cleaner while investing in the clean energies of tomorrow.
Tangible actions have included sourcing 100% of Adnoc’s grid power from clean nuclear and solar energy, the first company in its sector to do so, pioneering the application of carbon capture technologies with the region’s first CCUS facility and diversifying into hydrogen and renewable energies.
Under Dr. Sultan Al Jaber’s leadership, Adnoc is investing $15n over five years in its decarbonisation strategy and its new low-carbon solutions business as it delivers on its target to reduce its carbon intensity by 25% by 2030 and its ambition to reach net-zero by 2050.
Commenting on his appointment as President of COP28, Dr. Al Jaber said, “This will be a critical year in a critical decade for climate action.
“The UAE is approaching Cop28 with a strong sense of responsibility and the highest possible level of ambition.
“In cooperation with the UNFCCC and the Cop27 Presidency, we will champion an inclusive agenda that ramps up action on mitigation, encourages a just energy transition that leaves no one behind, ensures substantial, affordable climate finance is directed to the most vulnerable, accelerates funding for adaptation and builds out a robust funding facility to address loss and damage.”
“In doing so, we will bring a pragmatic, realistic and solutions-oriented approach that delivers transformative progress for climate and for low carbon economic growth.
“We will therefore take an inclusive approach that engages all stakeholders from the public and private sectors, civil society, scientific community, women, and youth.
“We must especially focus on how climate action can address the needs of the Global South, as those most impacted by climate change trends.”
He added, “I sincerely believe that climate action today is an immense economic opportunity for investment in sustainable growth.
“Finance is the key that can unlock climate action and we are committed to supporting and facilitating the ongoing review of international financial institutions to scale up public financing, leverage private finance and improve access.”
As the COP28 host, the UAE will aim to build consensus and coalitions to achieve a practical, pragmatic and just energy transition and reform land use and food systems, while scaling up adaptation and operationalising the new loss and damage fund.
The Conference is expected to convene over 70,000 participants, including heads of state, government officials, international industry leaders, private sector representatives, academics, experts, youth, and non-state actors, who will gather to discuss climate change while showcasing innovative solutions that can support multilateral cooperation and climate diplomacy.
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