To: António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General, Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and Parties to the UNFCCC —
On January 11, news broke that Sultan Al Jaber, the chief executive of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), will be overseeing the upcoming round of global climate negotiations as president of COP28, hosted by the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The United States, the European Union, and even the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) all applauded the news. But let us be clear–this is no cause for celebration. This decision threatens the legitimacy and efficacy of COP28. If we have any hope of addressing the climate crisis, every COP must be free from the polluting influence of the fossil fuel industry. ADNOC is the world’s 12th largest oil producer. As a major emitter it ranks 14th in the list of corporations most responsible for carbon emissions. ADNOC also ranked 2nd highest in a global analysis of fossil fuel companies’ oil & gas expansion plans, making it one of the fastest growing fossil fuel companies based on its project and construction approval for new fields and wells. It recently ramped up its expansion plans by committing to produce 5 million barrels per day by 2027, and it partners closely with other major polluters to continue to lock in a fossilfueled future. Its plans are incompatible with the International Energy Agency’s scenario, which makes it clear that there can be no new oil and gas development to be on track to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Even before the appointment of Al Jaber, the UAE’s track record demonstrates it is not serious about phasing out fossil fuel use and keeping global temperature rise to below 1.5 degrees Celsius. Rather, its track record demonstrates it is central to causing the climate crisis, not solving it. There is no honor in appointing a fossil fuel executive who profits immensely off of fueling the climate crisis to oversee the global response to climate change. That such a move could ever be seen to be legitimate amidst an intensifying climate crisis where millions of lives and ecosystems are on the line exemplifies just how insidious Big Polluters’ stranglehold over climate policy is. It also points to a deeper problem—fossil fuel interests overrun the UNFCCC and threaten its credibility. At COP27 last November, more than 630 fossil fuel lobbyists registered to attend the climate negotiations. The UAE, now hosting COP28, had more fossil fuel lobbyists on its delegation than any other country. The grim reality is that this appointment represents a tipping point in which the UNFCCC is rapidly losing any legitimacy and credibility. More than 450 organizations have called on world governments to reset the system to ensure that it stops serving greed and profits and instead protects the people and communities who are paying for the world’s fossil fuel addiction with their lives and livelihoods. Multiple UNFCCC constituencies—representing youth, women and gender, trade unions, and the climate justice movement—have called on the UNFCCC to finally pass an Accountability Framework that ends the ability of Big Polluters to unduly influence and undermine the global response to climate change. Yet despite this united demand, and as the climate crisis is being experienced all 2 around the world, world governments continue to treat the UNFCCC as an industry PR stunt and corporate trade show, despite the clear warnings delivered by the IPCC. No COP overseen by a fossil fuel executive can be seen as legitimate. COP Presidencies must be free and independent of fossil fuel influence. It’s time for the UNFCCC to deliver the long overdue equitable phaseout of fossil fuels. Critically, addressing the real problem of polluting interests only begins here. In addition, we demand: 1. Big Polluters cannot write the rules. Big Polluters must not be allowed to unduly influence climate policymaking. This allows them to continue weaken and undermine the global response to climate change, and it’s why we are on the brink of extinction. The UNFCCC must urgently establish an Accountability Framework, including a regime-wide conflict-of-interest policy, that systematically ends this corporate capture. 2. No more Big Polluters’ bankrolling climate action. No Big Polluter partnership or sponsorships of climate talks or climate action. Not now. Not ever. Major polluters must not be allowed to greenwash themselves and literally buy their way out of culpability for a crisis they have caused. The UNFCCC will always fail to deliver so long as this is deemed acceptable. 3. Polluters out and People in. While civil society has always participated in the COP process, governments have made it more difficult each time for non-governmental organizations and climate justice movements to have their voices heard. We need equitable, meaningful inclusion of civil society. Climate action must center the leadership and lived experience of the people, especially those on the frontlines of the climate crisis. With frontline communities in the lead, we must end the funding and validation of dangerous distractions and false solutions that promote Big Polluters’ profits, enable their abuses, and guarantee decades more of fossil fuel use. 4. Reset the system to protect people and the planet, not Big Polluters. Big Polluters are destroying life as we know it. It’s time to build a new way of living and collaborating that works for people, not polluters, and that restores, rather than destroys, nature. We need real, just, accountable, gender responsive, community-led, nature-restoring, and proven and transformative solutions to be implemented rapidly and justly. We need a total and equitable transition off of fossil fuels. We need real solutions that center the rights of Indigenous peoples, local communities, women, workers, and the protection of those speaking up for justice. We need an end to the impunity of corporate abuses. Year after year, the UNFCCC has failed to deliver the needed climate equity and action to end the era of fossil fuels, and to rapidly and justly transition to a new global system. 2023 needs to be a breakthrough year. Will the UNFCCC keep undermining its own credibility and continue to avoid addressing the core driver of the climate crisis—fossil fuels? Or will it continue to give its executives a seat at the head of the table?