US, EU lawmakers push for new Cop 28 president

US and European lawmakers are pressuring transatlantic and UN leadership to force a change at the top of this year's Cop 28 climate talks and limit the power of the private sector in influencing climate policy.

The lawmakers want the United Arab Emirates to replace Sultan al-Jaber as the Cop president, who, as chief executive of state-owned oil company Adnoc, they say is not the right choice to lead the climate talks taking place in Dubai later this year.

"The decision to name as president of Cop 28 the chief executive of one of the world's largest oil and gas companies — a company that has recently announced plans to add 7.6bn barrels of oil to its production in the coming years, representing the fifth largest increase in the world — risks undermining the negotiations," the lawmakers said in a letter addressed to US president Joe Biden, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, UN secretary general Antonio Guterres and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) executive secretary Simon Stiell, who they hope will pressure the UAE to make the change.

US senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) and European Parliament member Manon Aubry of France led the group of 133 members of Congress and the European Parliament who signed the letter, which says that al-Jaber's selection weakens "public faith in the Cop process."

The lawmakers also called for new rules around corporate participation at the Cop summit and UNFCCC activities, such as requiring companies to disclose campaign contributions, climate-related lobbying, and funding put toward trade and other groups active in the energy and climate spheres. The UNFCCC should also mull other actions to guarantee that policy discussions are protected from "corporate actors" with interests counter to the aims of the Paris agreement, they said.

The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The UAE pick of al-Jaber to oversee Cop 28 has drawn criticism from climate activists who say he has a stark conflict of interest with the goals of the talks, as fossil fuels are the largest contributor to global warming.

For his part, al-Jaber is overseeing $15bn earmarked by the UAE over the next five years for decarbonization projects, such as carbon capture and storage, and has defended his appointment with appeals to his "action-oriented, results-driven" approach to advancing global decarbonization.

By Patrick Zemanek