With UAE gearing up to host COP28, marking the first comprehensive assessment of progress made in the Paris Agreement, there is a lot of work to be done, cautioned Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, president-designate for COP28. He was speaking at the Global Energy Forum in Abu Dhabi. 

“We are way off track. The world is playing catch up with the key Paris goal of holding global temperatures down to 1.5 degrees. And the hard reality is that to achieve this goal, global emissions must fall 43% by 2030,” said Al Jaber. 

The need of the hour is for countries to decrease emissions during continued economic uncertainty, heightened geopolitical tensions, and increasing pressure on energy security.

Al Jaber said that the UAE aims for COP28 to transform systems and accelerate 2030 trajectories through partnerships, solutions, and tangible outcomes.

“We want it to be a COP of solidarity that bridges the Global North and South and includes public and private sectors, scientists and civil society, women, and youth. And we want it to be a practical COP, a COP of action, a COP for all, a COP that raises ambition and moves from goals to get it done across mitigation adaptation, loss and damage and, of course, finance,” he said.

Al Jaber, who also serves as Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and as the Managing Director and Group CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, stated that over the past 15 years, the UAE plans to invest another $50 billion in cleantech. He added that over 70% of the UAE’s economy falls outside the oil and gas sector.

“We are proud to be the host country of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the first country in our region to commit to the Paris Agreement, the first in the region to submit a nationally determined contribution and the first to set out a road map to net zero,” he said.

Al Jaber said that the UAE has always been committed to environmental stewardship as an integral part of its economy and views climate action as central to the nation’s successful development.

“We are at a turning point in history. Low carbon growth is the future. But we must get there much faster,” he said.