OPEC issued a strongly worded defense of the oil-and-gas industry days before the start of the biggest ever climate talks, pushing back against the International Energy Agency (IEA) and highlighting the increasingly fractious debate over how best to tackle global warming.
More than 70,000 politicians, diplomats, campaigners, financiers and business leaders will fly to Dubai to talk about arresting the world’s slide toward environmental catastrophe.
The briefing pack on the various countries often reiterated one point. “There is no conflict between sustainable development of any country’s natural resources and its commitment to climate change.”
There is an "emissions canyon" between current policies and what is required to stop the Earth heating beyond safe limits, the UN has warned.
European Union negotiators struck a deal to curb methane releases from fossil-fuel infrastructure and plotted a course to monitor and limit the emissions associated with imported energy sources.
The UK should join a growing group of countries that have committed to phasing out production of fossil fuels, ahead of the UN climate conference Cop28 in Dubai, a Danish climate minister has told a group of UK MPs.
“This is the year to show the world you are central to the solution. This industry can change the global debate and can change the global outcome,” Al Jaber said.
Masdar will stump up $2bn of equity, with another $8bn in project financing and through its Infinity Power venture. The Abu Dhabi-based company intends to reach 10 GW of clean energy in Africa by 2030.
“We need to have the right engagement with difficult to engage countries,” Davis explained. “We have to engage the other half and try new approaches.”
“It’s transition on our own terms, with our own resources. We need to get smarter about how we articulate that, not as victims, or as people to be allowed to do things,” said Yvonne Ike, head of sub-Saharan Africa at Bank of America. “We need to work with the countries that get it, so from the Gulf, from Asia.”
Notwithstanding all the rhetoric, pledges and promises, 27 COPs, as well as genuine progress and notable effort in some areas, the global energy mix has not really changed from an 80:20 fossil fuel to renewables ratio over the last 30 years.