COP28 president-designate urges oil industry to phase out methane emissions by 2030, eliminate carbon intensity

“The goal for this industry and all industries is clear. We need to phase out emissions from all sectors including transportation, agriculture, heavy industry and of course fossil fuels, while investing in technologies to phase up all viable zero carbon alternatives,” Jaber said.

For this to happen faster, he said that the relationship between large energy producers and consumers should be reimagined from one based purely on supply and demand to one focused on “co-creating the future”. Jaber added that developing nations must be taken along as new technologies get developed and deployed for climate action and energy transition to be effective globally.

“It is critical that as we adopt new technologies, the global south is not left behind. Last year, developing economies received only twenty per cent of clean tech investments. These economies represent seventy percent of the world’s population, that’s over five billion people. Technology is essential to helping the most vulnerable communities, build capacities and leapfrog into a low carbon economic development model,” he said.

To maximise technology adoption in developing countries, public, multilateral, and private sectors need to “supercharge” climate finance, to make it “much more available, more accessible, and more affordable”.

Since his appointment to lead the global climate talks later this year, Jaber has time and again opined that the role of the developing world is critical in the fight against climate change, and has called for efforts to ensure an inclusive energy transition and climate justice. At the India Energy Week in February, Jaber touched upon these issues and reassured the developing countries that the UAE would push for energy and climate justice.

COP28, or the 28th United Nations Climate Change conference is scheduled to be held between November 30 and December 12 in the UAE. Jaber’s appointment as the president of COP28 had led to some backlash among climate activists, given his position as the chief executive of a large oil company. On his part, Jaber has maintained that he and his team will actively listen and engage with all stakeholders globally.

At the India Energy Week, Jaber had suggested that the hydrocarbons industry should be included as a partner in the fight against climate change, and not an adversary. Jaber had said that the world still needs hydrocarbons as a bridge to a new energy system. “We cannot unplug the current energy system before we have built the new one. As such, we must minimise their carbon footprint, only invest in the least carbon intensive barrels (of oil) and continue to reduce their intensity,” he had said.

Jaber has also been pushing for a rapid ramp-up in global renewable energy capacity. In January, he called for tripling the global renewable energy capacity to 11,000 GW by 2030. “And we should set the goal of doubling that again by 2040. That said, renewable energies are not and cannot be the only answer,” he said on Wednesday.

Jaber added that various industrial plants cannot operate only on renewable energy and that is where solutions like hydrogen can play a critical role. “But it needs to be scaled up and commercialised to make a real impact in the energy system. And just like smart policies sent the right market signals to the renewable energy sector twenty years ago, hydrogen needs a similar boost today,” he added.

Speaking further on industrial emissions, Jaber said that the world needs to “get serious” about carbon capture technologies. “In any realistic scenario that gets us to net zero (emissions), carbon capture technology will have a role to play. Without it, the math just doesn’t add up,” he said.

“Cost remains the main barrier and we need policy makers to incentivise technology companies to help commercialise all kinds of carbon capture…And we should go further, by using technology to turn captured carbon into products with practical applications and commercial value,” jabber added.

He also underscored the need to continue pushing for breakthroughs in battery storage, expand nuclear energy, and invest in new energy pathways like fusion. Jaber also urged technology companies to focus on agricultural technology, as “food systems and agriculture are the biggest single source of greenhouse gasses, representing over one third of global emissions”.

The correspondent is in Abu Dhabi for UAE Climate Tech on the invitation of UAE’s Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology, ADNOC, and Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar).