Exclusive: UAE’s Sultan Al Jaber says phase-out of coal, oil and gas would take world ‘back into caves’
The president of Cop28, Sultan Al Jaber, has claimed there is “no science” indicating that a phase-out of fossil fuels is needed to restrict global heating to 1.5C, the Guardian and the Centre for Climate Reporting can reveal.
Al Jaber also said a phase-out of fossil fuels would not allow sustainable development “unless you want to take the world back into caves”.
The comments were “incredibly concerning” and “verging on climate denial”, scientists said, and they were at odds with the position of the UN secretary general, António Guterres.
I’m not sure about European ones but in North America they tend to go for understatement and philanthropic PR to keep the public off their back. The only reason I know what they go for in the middle east is studying the area. It’s not racist to point out general tendencies in culture. No one here is accusing them of criminal excess or bad character, just gaudiness. Which you can easily see in Dubai, UAE, or SA. It’s literally on display.
Also, it’s not a Muslim thing or an everyone in the region thing. It’s specific to a socioeconomic group. Like saying wealthy people prefer to buy cars 50k and up from Volvo, BMW, Audi, and Rolls Royce. There’s nothing wrong with that and it’s easily observable.