COP28 President-Designate Sultan Al-Jaber visited our headquarters in Paris last week for a special event on the role of the energy sector in accelerating climate action in the lead up to the global UN climate change conference, which is taking place this November in Dubai.
Ambassadors representing over 50 countries from across the globe – accounting for around 80% of global CO2 emissions – as well as leaders from major energy companies were in attendance. The roundtable meeting was an opportunity for Dr Al-Jaber, who is leading the United Arab Emirates’ COP28 Presidency, to outline his priorities for the climate conference. It allowed countries present – a diverse group of advanced, emerging and developing economies spanning Africa, the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Middle East – to give their perspectives, pose questions and make suggestions.
In his opening remarks introducing Dr Al-Jaber, our Executive Director Fatih Birol said a successful COP28 is vital for all countries because the Paris Agreement target of limiting global warming to 1.5°C – and therefore the future of the planet – is at risk. He added that COP28 gives the UAE the opportunity to demonstrate leadership on climate action for other oil and gas producers, setting a path that moves them away from over-reliance on hydrocarbons towards a cleaner and more secure future. The IEA will help map out this path with a special report that we will publish ahead of COP28 on the role of oil and gas producers in the transition to net zero emissions.
Dr Al-Jaber, who also had a separate bilateral meeting with Dr Birol during his visit, said the IEA was an important stop on his current international “listening tour”, describing the IEA as “the global headquarters of energy” and highlighting our Agency’s role as a thought leader that helps guide global energy policy and improve knowledge and understanding of energy systems worldwide. After his meetings at the IEA, Dr Al-Jaber also met with President Emmanuel Macron of France and several French ministers, political figures and civil society leaders.
In his remarks during the roundtable, Dr Al-Jaber underlined the scale of the world’s energy and climate challenges and stressed that incremental change will not be enough to overcome them. He said that meeting the world’s fast-growing energy needs while dramatically reducing emissions is one of the most complex challenges that humanity has ever faced. And he called for transformational progress in all the key areas of mitigation, adaptation, climate finance, and loss and damage.
