The COP28 will be kicked off with the inaugural event- COP28 Business & Philanthropy Climate Forum, with the leaders of the World Climate Action Summit
The United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, widely known as COP28, will take place at the Expo City in Dubai next month. This is going to be the perfect forum for the international oil and gas majors to come together and pledge to jointly reduce carbon emissions for the protection of the environment.
Patrick Pouyanne, the CEO of TotalEnergies, told the attendees present at the Energy Intelligence Forum in London that the President of COP28, Sultan Al Jaber, is utilising his position to bring the oil and gas industries together at one table.
Sultan Al Jaber, the Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology of UAE, is currently seated in the president position of COP.
He is also the CEO of the government-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), one of the largest producers of oil and pollution. Jaber became the first-ever president to manage an oil company. The UAE appointed Jaber as their special envoy for climate change; he will be dealing with climate negotiations on behalf of the Emirati kingdom at the meeting, which will host representatives from over 190 countries.
Criticisms garnered were centred around his role at the oil companies. Critics raised questions about why a representative of an oil company should become the leader in climate negotiations. But his supporters, including the US climate envoy John Kerry and ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair, countered that his experience with the oil industry would be favourable in chalking out a plan which would be both beneficial for the climate and not impact the oil company much.
Pouyanne said that a collaboration of private and publicly listed oil companies like TotalEnergies, along with national oil companies, should be formed. He mentioned that the ADIPEC conference in early October was attended by more than 40 CEOs from the non-renewable sector, and each of them was striving very hard to solve the issue of climate change progressively. He said that a collaboration of oil and gas companies could work towards achieving the target of a net zero methane emission by the end of 2050, which could be a game-changer.
He highlighted in his speech that we should not ban fossil fuels as it has become a part of people’s life, and alternating them overnight is just not possible. There needs to be a proper system to shift their everyday needs, and this can only happen when these companies accept it as their responsibility.
A solution put forth by Pouyanne was to cut scope 1 and 2 emissions. Scope 1 refers to emissions by sources directly under the control of the company, and Scope 2 is the indirect emissions like carbon dioxide emissions from the electricity used by these companies in their offices.
BPCF
The COP28 will be kicked off with the inaugural event- COP28 Business & Philanthropy Climate Forum, with the leaders of the World Climate Action Summit. BPCF, led by the COP28 Action Agenda, will coordinate the resources and expertise of global partners to speed up the process of energy transition and climate financing for the protection of livelihoods, nature, and climate.
They have announced partnership projects with international organisations and philanthropy leaders besides government representatives to form policies for faster implementations of viable solutions. The COP28 Presidency has built the first-of-its-kind multi-stakeholder engagement strategy, fueled by the UAE’s ambitions to compile global support and involvement from all corners of the world.
Some of their delivery partners are the Asian Development Bank, World Economic Forum – Giving to Amplify Earth Action, International Finance Corporation (IFC), Africa Finance Corporation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, etc. These partners will help to fill the financing gap of $3 trillion required for achieving the target of net zero emissions, preserving forests and alike.