Sultan Al Jaber, chief govt of the UAE’s Abu Dhabi Nationwide Oil Firm (ADNOC) and president of this 12 months’s COP28 local weather summit gestures throughout an interview as a part of the seventh Ministerial on Local weather Motion (MoCA) in Brussels on July 13, 2023.
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UAE oil big ADNOC — run by the president of the COP28 local weather convention — is predicted to spend greater than $1 billion each month this decade on fossil fuels, in accordance with new evaluation by worldwide NGO International Witness.
That is practically seven instances greater than its dedication to decarbonization tasks over the identical timeframe, the analysis says.
ADNOC, which just lately grew to become the primary amongst its friends to carry ahead its net-zero ambition to 2045, disputes International Witness’ evaluation and says the assumptions made are inaccurate.
It comes forward of the COP28 local weather summit, with Dubai set to host the U.N.’s annual convention from Nov. 30 by to Dec. 12. Considered as some of the important local weather conferences since 2015’s landmark Paris Settlement, COP28 will see international leaders collect to debate tips on how to progress within the struggle in opposition to the local weather disaster.
The particular person overseeing the talks, Sultan al-Jaber, is chief govt of ADNOC (the Abu Dhabi Nationwide Oil Firm) — one of many world’s largest oil and gasoline companies. His place as each COP28 president and ADNOC CEO brought about dismay amongst civil society teams and U.S. and EU lawmakers, though a number of authorities ministers have since defended his appointment.
International Witness’ evaluation, offered solely to CNBC, discovered that ADNOC is planning to spend a mean of $1.14 billion a month on oil and gasoline manufacturing alone between now and 2030 — the identical 12 months through which the U.N. says the world should reduce emissions by 45% to keep away from international disaster.
It signifies that ADNOC is forecast to spend practically seven instances extra on fossil fuels by to 2030 than it does on “low-carbon resolution” tasks.
By 2050, the 12 months through which the U.N. says all the world financial system should obtain net-zero emissions, ADNOC is projected to have invested $387 billion in oil and gasoline. The burning of fossil fuels is the chief driver of the local weather emergency.
A spokesperson at ADNOC instructed CNBC through e-mail: “The evaluation of, and assumptions made, concerning ADNOC’s capital expenditure program past the corporate’s present five-year marketing strategy (2023 to 2027) are speculative and due to this fact incorrect.”
The Abu Dhabi power group introduced in January this 12 months that it might allocate $15 billion for funding in “low-carbon options” by 2030, together with investments in clear energy, carbon seize and storage and electrification tasks.
Excessive-rise tower buildings alongside the central Sheikh Zayed Street in Dubai on July 3, 2023.
Karim Sahib | Afp | Getty Photos
International Witness arrived at its projections by analyzing ADNOC’s forecasted oil and gasoline capital expenditure, exploratory capital expenditure and operational expenditure for the interval from 2023 to 2050. The information was sourced from Rystad Power’s UCube database.
Rystad’s information just isn’t accessible to the general public, however is extensively used and referenced by main oil and gasoline firms and worldwide our bodies.
“Fossil fuels firms prefer to burnish their inexperienced credentials, but they hardly ever say the quiet half out loud: that they proceed to throw eyewatering quantities on the usual polluting oil and gasoline that’s accelerating the local weather disaster,” mentioned Patrick Galey, senior investigator at International Witness.
“How [al-Jaber] can count on to lecture different nations on the necessity to decarbonise and be taken significantly is anybody’s guess, whereas he continues to offer vastly extra funding to grease and gasoline than to renewable alternate options,” he added.
“He’s a fossil gas boss, plain and easy, saying one factor whereas his firm does the opposite,” Galey mentioned.
The United Nations Framework Conference on Local weather Change didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the evaluation carried out by International Witness. The Convention of the Events (COP) is the supreme decision-making physique of the UNFCCC.
Principal precedence for COP28
Al-Jaber was the founding CEO of Abu Dhabi state-owned renewable power agency Masdar, which works in additional than 40 international locations worldwide and has invested in or dedicated to put money into renewable power tasks with a complete worth of over $30 billion.
Talking earlier this 12 months, al-Jaber mentioned the primary precedence for the COP28 summit shall be to maintain alive the struggle to restrict international heating to 1.5 levels Celsius.
The Paris Settlement goals to restrict the rise within the international common temperature to “properly under” 2 levels Celsius above pre-industrial ranges and to pursue efforts to restrict international heating to 1.5 levels Celsius. Past the vital temperature threshold of 1.5 levels Celsius, it turns into extra probably that small modifications can set off dramatic shifts in Earth’s complete life help system.
The Worldwide Power Company says no new oil, gasoline or coal improvement is suitable with the purpose of curbing international heating to 1.5 levels Celsius.
In response to a request for remark from CNBC, an ADNOC spokesperson mentioned that power demand is growing because the world’s inhabitants is increasing. “All the present power transition eventualities, together with by the IEA, present that some degree of oil and gasoline shall be wanted into the long run,” the spokesperson mentioned.
“As such, it is necessary that, along with accelerating investments in renewables and decrease carbon power options, we think about the least carbon intensive sources of oil and gasoline and additional scale back their depth to allow a good, equitable, orderly, and accountable power transition. That is the strategy ADNOC is taking,” they added.
The spokesperson mentioned its 2022 upstream emissions information confirmed the power group as one of many least carbon-intensive producers worldwide. The corporate will search to additional scale back its carbon depth by 25% and goal close to zero methane emissions by 2030, they added.
“As we scale back our emissions, we’re additionally ramping up investments in renewables and nil carbon energies like hydrogen for our clients,” the spokesperson mentioned.
A separate report revealed in April final 12 months by International Witness and Oil Change Worldwide discovered that 20 of the world’s largest oil and gasoline firms have been projected to spend $932 billion by the tip of the last decade to develop new oil and gasoline fields.
At the moment, Russian state firm Gazprom was estimated to spend essentially the most on fossil gas improvement and exploration tasks by to 2030 ($139 billion), adopted by U.S. oil majors ExxonMobil ($84 billion) and Chevron ($67 billion).
