President of the next climate conference (COP28) Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber is trying to give defenders of the climate cause a glimmer of hope, with a series of carefully weighed statements and balanced "letters to parties": The summit opening on Thursday, November 30 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, will not be the summit of the oil lobby. And yet, month after month, shadows tarnish the message. In June, British daily The Guardian revealed that the COP presidency had used the servers of the leading Emirati oil company, Adnoc, to send and receive e-mails. The company was therefore able to view messages intended for the president. This is a disturbing proximity given that the appointment of Sultan Al-Jaber, the main figure of this COP, was heavily criticized because of his double role: He also presides over the national oil company.
In early November, after reviewing internal documents, Agence France-Presse's English-language wire service showed that the powerful consulting firm McKinsey was helping Al-Jaber's team prepare for the summit by proposing energy transition scenarios, such as reducing the share of oil by 50% by 2050. This trajectory completely contradicts scientists' alarms. Omnipotent, McKinsey also works for numerous fossil fuel multinationals. It's another way of mixing genres.
The president of the 28th Climate Conference reacted swiftly each time. But it didn't deny anything. In the first case, a few days after The Guardian's article, his office simply stated that it had changed its computer servers to no longer use those of Adnoc. As for the second piece of information, Al-Jaber's team, contacted by Le Monde, stated in a terse reply that they were working with the consulting firm: "McKinsey supports COP28 by providing information and analysis voluntarily." Also questioned, McKinsey, which had already helped the presidencies of COP15 in Copenhagen and COP26 in Glasgow, claimed to be supporting the Emirati teams "by providing strategic information and analysis," saying it is "convinced" that achieving the path to carbon neutrality "requires collaboration with private sector companies, high-emissions sectors and the global community as a whole." Sources told Le Monde that members of another consulting firm, BCG, are offering "technical support" to the presidency teams.
These revelations have NGOs fearing that the summit, under the leadership of the world's seventh-largest oil-producing country, will be corrupted by lobbies defending the interests of fossil fuel-producing multinationals. For the first time, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will have a stand in Dubai.
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