One of the protagonists of the first sessions of the climate summit (COP28) that has been held since November 30 in Dubai (United Arab Emirates) is undoubtedly Sultan Ahmed al Yaber, president (a position designated by the host country) of this annual meeting of the countries that are part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and also - among many other positions - and director of Adnoc (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company), a state company of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), considered the fourth oil company with the highest business volume in the world.
“It's like having the CEO of a tobacco company chairing a conference on lung cancer and its treatments,” Andreas Sieber, associate director of the climate NGO 350.org, commented with acid irony in statements to the NPR network.
Criticism of the holding of the climate summit in one of the countries with the largest hydrocarbon production in the world and, specifically, the appointment of Sultan al Jaber as its president, has been repeated in recent months and has intensified just before the start. of the meeting, with the publication in the BBC and many other media of some supposed confidential documents (revealed by the investigative journalism organization Center for Climate Reporting) that would indicate that the United Arab Emirates and its company Adnoc plan to take advantage of the visits on the occasion of COP28 to conclude oil agreements with various countries.
Al Jaber himself was forced to dedicate a few minutes of his first briefing after the opening of the summit to this issue. In a moderate but visibly upset tone, Al Yaber, who is also UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technologies, stated that the accusations published in these media are “false, incorrect and inaccurate.” What need does a country like the United Arab Emirates have to take advantage of diplomatic visits to do business, if it has the capacity and resources to do so at any other time and place? Al Yaber came to say to the hundreds of journalists attending the climate summit.
Fortunately for the accused, news attention was quickly diverted to a more positive issue for the international community, after the creation of the “loss and damage” fund was announced, intended to repair the climate damage caused to the most vulnerable nations.
Despite this first blow, it is very likely that the designated president of COP28 will continue to be a source of attention in the coming days, which is why his biographical and professional data are the center of attention of the moment.
The first detail to take into account is that Sultan is the first name of this Emirati politician and senior executive, that is, it should not be confused with the distinction, position or honorific condition that in Spanish is known as sultan ("Prince or Muslim governor”, RAE). The biography published on his own website (drsultanaljaber.com) indicates that he was born on August 31, 1973 in the United Arab Emirates. He does not detail that he was born specifically in Umm Al Quwain, capital of the small emirate of the same name, integrated into the UAE, that he is married and has four children. He earned a Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Southern California in the United States. He also has a PhD in Business and Economics from Coventry University (United Kingdom), as well as an MBA from California State University, Los Angeles (United States).
Al Yaber's career is very extensive and is full of aspects that can be criticized from an environmental and climate point of view, such as having led the greatest growth of all time in one of the most important and profitable oil companies in the world, such as - in the opposite sense - having become a prominent promoter of the decarbonization process and support for renewable energies, for example, as president of Masdar, also known as Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, the state-owned renewable energy company of the Emirates United Arabs.
Sultan Al Jaber's list of positions is as long as that of distinctions, among which is the one awarded in 2012 by the UN in the Champions of the Earth program, an honorary award that also includes people and entities from recognized environmentalists such as Ellen MacArthur, David Attenborough or the youth movement created by Greta Thunberg Fridays for Future.
