$100 billion! That’s a number ECO has heard for well over a decade, and again this week. ECO wishes that this was in celebration of reaching a full $100 billion in grants-based public finance, but sadly no. This is not about the amount of climate finance which was promised per year by 2020 – and not delivered.
No. It is the volume of oil and gas deals done last year by just one nationally-owned oil company, ADNOC, when the UAE held the COP28 presidency.
That’s right, $100 billion!
While ECO thought we were in Dubai to increase ambition on fighting the climate crisis – including a full, fast, fair, and funded fossil fuel phase out – it seems that others were there for a different reason: promoting oil and gas.
ECO had its suspicions, of course, but a new Global Witness report confirms that when you put the head of an oil and gas company in charge of the climate negotiations, then you end up with more oil and gas commitments.
Conflict of Interest, anyone?
Among the deals done were ones with other members of the troika – the countries which will host the next two COPs. And it’s not lost on ECO that when we go to this year’s petrostate host country, yet again a former oil and gas executive will be in charge.
This new report emphasizes the critical need for a conflict of interest policy at the UNFCCC. Big Polluters are the fox in the hen house. Keeping global heating below 1.5ºC will require phasing out fossil fuels, full stop. So it’s hard to claim that you are committed to transitioning away from fossil fuels while prioritizing deals to sell more.