Article summary
- COP 28 President has asked global stakeholders to reduce emissions and not energy access.
- He wants the focus to shift from limiting energy access by cutting fossil fuels to using tech in reducing emissions across all sectors.
- Creating partnerships is an effective way to achieve this goal.
The COP 28 President and UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, has called on global stakeholders to work towards reducing emissions, not energy access.
He made this known on May 10, during the UAE Climate Tech conference in Abu Dhabi. According to him, the focus should be on emissions reduction as opposed to limiting energy access, as the world population keeps growing. He said:
- “The latest IPCC report has confirmed that the world must reduce emissions by 43% by 2030, and that is if we are serious about keeping the ambition of 1.5 alive. At the same time, we know that global energy demand will continue to increase because an additional half a billion people will join us on this planet by 2030.
- “If we are going to maintain economic progress, while dramatically reducing emissions, we need nothing short of a major course correction. We need to translate what we agree on inside the COP negotiation rooms into practical actions in the real world.
- We need to find a way to hold back emissions, not progress. We need breakthrough solutions, and the single most critical source of these solutions is technology.”
Dr Al Jaber called on all stakeholders to play their part by formulating the right policies, attracting investments, and encouraging the development of climate technologies, especially in oil and gas operations, so the world can remove up to 25 billion tons of carbon emissions every year across all sectors. He said:
- “By leveraging climate technologies, we can build a new economic development model based on putting an end to emissions, while breathing new life into economic growth. While the world still uses hydrocarbons, we must do everything in our power to reduce and eventually eliminate the carbon intensity of that energy.
- “That’s why I have called on the oil and gas industry to zero out methane emissions by 2030 and align around comprehensive net zero plans by or before 2050.
- The goal for this industry and all industries is clear. We need to phase out emissions from all sectors, including transportation, agriculture, heavy industry, and of course fossil fuel emissions while investing in technologies to phase up all viable zero-carbon alternatives.”
Practical ways to reduce emissions while increasing energy access
According to Dr. Al Jaber, stakeholders should practice these two principles to reduce emissions while increasing energy access:
- Working together and creating an active partnership between the largest producers of energy, the biggest industrial consumers, technology companies, the finance community, the government, and civil society. This will ensure that no one is left behind in the global energy transition.
- Re-imagining the relationship between producers and consumers from one based purely on supply and demand to one that is focused on co-creating the future
