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Sultan Al-Jaber PA

Emissions of Abu Dhabi oil company owned by COP28 President to increase more than 40% by 2030

“This Jekyll and Hyde presidency of crucial climate negotiations is now a critical concern,” an analyst said

THE OIL COMPANY run by the president of this year’s UN climate conference is set to increase the emissions from its oil and gas products by more than 40% by 2030, according to analysis by Global Witness.

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) produced about 957 million barrels of oil and 62 billion cubic metres of gas last year and this is set to increase to 1.3 billion barrels and 88 billion cubic metres respectively in 2030.

Adnoc’s CEO Sultan Al-Jaber, who is also the president for the UN climate talks at COP28, has emphasised publicly the need to phase down fossil fuels but this analysis has found his company may be doing the opposite.

Global Witness said they used industry-standard projections published by the research firm Rystad Energy on the expected levels of future production and calculated the subsequent increase in carbon emissions.

Looking at oil and gas assets owned or operated by Adnoc, including untapped reserves predicted to be used to meet future demand, they calculated that carbon emissions from oil and gas produced by the company will rise from 487 million tonnes of CO2 this year to 684 million tonnes in 2030 – an increase of just over 40%.

The analysts said this is a conservative estimate as it does not include other forms of hydrocarbons produced by Adnoc such as natural gas liquids or condensate.

Known as scope three emissions, these are the greenhouse gases produced when oil or gas is burnt for fuel or used in products such as plastics.

They account for the vast majority of emissions associated with oil and gas yet most companies that produce fossil fuels, such as Adnoc, do not take them into account in their net-zero plans, including only those generated in the extraction process itself.

Adnoc disputed the findings saying Global Witness mistakenly analysed the company’s production capacity – which is set to increase to more than 1.8 billion barrels of oil a year by 2030.

But when presented with Rystad’s definition of the figures used by Global Witness which does not mention capacity – “production is the expected annualised rate of extraction of hydrocarbons” – Adnoc did not reply.

Patrick Galey, senior fossil fuels investigator at Global Witness, said: “At a time when we need a rapid, equitable and widespread reduction in the pollution we produce, Al-Jaber presides over a firm that is planning an oil and gas production bonanza.

“This Jekyll and Hyde presidency of crucial climate negotiations is now a critical concern,” Galey said.

“The need for everyone to pull in the same direction in order to slash emissions and safeguard a liveable future for all of us has never been clearer.

“Keeping the boss of a fossil fuel company heading in the exact opposite direction as president of COP28 looks more baffling by the day.”

Last week, Al-Jaber described the phase-down of fossil fuels as “inevitable” and “essential”, while stopping short of saying they need to be phased out.

Addressing oil and gas companies at an energy conference in Abu Dhabi last week, he said they are “central to the solution” and while the 1.5C target in the Paris Agreement is their “North Star”, he said oil and gas companies must also continue fuelling the growth of human society.

Many campaigners have called into question Al-Jaber’s credibility in the upcoming climate talks given his role as Adnoc’s CEO, raising concerns about the ambition or robustness of any agreement made.

Observers of the talks have said for some years that representatives from the oil and gas industry should be excluded, given that they profit from the production of gases that are heating the planet and destabilising the climate.

An Adnoc spokesperson said: “We recognise the climate imperative and welcome constructive dialogue in support of practical solutions.

“However, the analysis by Global Witness is misleading as it makes no distinction between production capacity and actual production.

“Inaccurate speculation is divisive and unhelpful, and our collective focus should be on working collaboratively to accelerate the transition to net zero.”

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    Mute Edward Vetjam
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    Oct 5th 2023, 12:49 PM

    Make sure to keep turning off the red light on your TVs And it should even out ..

    330
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    Mute james rowan
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    Oct 5th 2023, 1:32 PM

    Sssshhhh dont tell eamon they will be grand

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    Mute Tommy Haze
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    Oct 5th 2023, 2:18 PM

    @Edward Vetjam:
    Stop burning the few aul sods of turf to keep you warm in the winter.

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    Mute Shaun Gallagher
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    Oct 5th 2023, 12:47 PM

    We are the fools

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    Mute Thomas Meaney
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    Oct 5th 2023, 12:51 PM

    @Shaun Gallagher: tax this, tax that, lets make it better by taxing it some more … your right Shaun we are the mugs but having said that if we as Irish citizens are happy to sit still keep schtum and take it all who really is to blame? #it’srottenfromthetop

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    Mute john dennehy
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    Oct 5th 2023, 1:37 PM

    All the great and good wealthy leaders will be filling up their private jets with tax-free fuel to meet an Oil sheik in Abu Dhabi to figure out how to squeeze more tax out of the poor, they should call it COPOUT 28.

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    Mute
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    Oct 5th 2023, 1:37 PM

    Thank god for the people in Ireland who are driving electric cars. Only for them the planet could be in grave danger.

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    Mute Davy
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    Oct 5th 2023, 12:49 PM

    Tax any house with links Eamon…

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    Mute Anonymous User
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    Oct 5th 2023, 12:55 PM

    The Just Stop Oil fools are barking at the wrong tree…

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    Mute Brendan O'Brien
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    Oct 5th 2023, 1:03 PM

    @Anonymous User: And you can’t even get a simple idiom right.

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    Mute Anonymous User
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    Oct 5th 2023, 1:13 PM

    @Brendan O’Brien: And we have a weener ! :)

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    Mute Brendan O'Brien
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    Oct 5th 2023, 1:20 PM

    @Anonymous User: Do you? I’m pleased for you.

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    Mute SerotoninWars
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    Oct 5th 2023, 1:05 PM

    We need more and more people who are literally in the line of fire to be given a voice. People like Al-Jaber will be the very last to be affected. Same with the Trump’s of this world. Apart from their vast wealth and the different properties they have to escape to, they can also escape via helicopters, private jets and so on. If one part of the world becomes uninhabitable or miserable, no problem – buy up and move to somewhere else that’s habitable.

    This sense of threat is spoken about enough. Of course you are going to be more lax and relaxed about things if you know you will always have an ace up your sleeve that poorer people don’t. That sense of panic doesn’t exist for them as they won’t be on the ground anywhere near the affected areas. It’s super simple in some ways but this basic sense of threat is a huge motivation to get things done. When it’s not there, it’s hardy surprising that you won’t have the same sense of urgency. The uber-privileged are not reflective of the people who will really pay the price. What they say is pretty much worthless.

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    Mute SerotoninWars
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    Oct 5th 2023, 1:08 PM

    @SerotoninWars: **is not spoken about enough** doh!

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    Mute Ciaran Sherry
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    Oct 5th 2023, 2:03 PM

    Jabbering on about the need to reduce the production and consumption of carbon products while increasing both is a load of hot air.

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    Mute Barney
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    Oct 5th 2023, 3:51 PM

    China responsible for 31% of global CO2 emissions yet nobody says boo to them. Meanwhile we self flagellate ourselves by taxing everything. A shortage of electricity on one side is helped by high rate domestic users propping up Data Centers. This latest Example of an Oil tycoon preaching out the other cheek has really destroyed all concern, its a scam. The answer lies in science, not destroying lives of people on the poverty line.

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    Mute Aidan Mcguire
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    Oct 5th 2023, 3:35 PM

    This just shows what a con it all is ….Acid rain,,the ozone layer,,global warming and now ‘climate change is gonna finish us all off,,which it won’t of course as did none of the other apocalyptic events….Anyone that can’t see what a sham it all is really is lost..I heard a forecaster talking on the radio about our weather a few days ago,,the conversation wasn’t about climate change,,just the weather in general here at the moment and he was asked what the weather will be like in November and December to which he answered that it’s impossible to predict more than 10 days ahead and yet we are being told what the weather will be like in 10,,20 ,30 and 50 years time….When I hear people talk about the seriousness of climate change they are either corrupt,,being paid to talk about it or a moron …..

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    Mute Martin Mongan
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    Oct 5th 2023, 4:34 PM

    @Aidan Mcguire: yeah nothing to do with banning CFC’s and all that crack. No the ozone repaired itself

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    Mute Kieran Stafford
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    Oct 5th 2023, 1:25 PM

    Quasimodo predicted all of this

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    Mute Martin Mongan
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    Oct 5th 2023, 4:32 PM

    @Kieran Stafford: great show

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    Mute Tatey
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    Oct 5th 2023, 4:56 PM

    @Kieran Stafford: He had a hunch alright… but not about climate change.

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    Mute Garret Fawl
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    Oct 5th 2023, 1:35 PM

    I really hope these Sultans one day realise they can’t live in their own countries and now have no oil left to spend their way out of the mess they have helped create. It will come, all they have is oil. Nothing else.

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    Mute ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere
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    Oct 5th 2023, 1:56 PM

    @Garret Fawl: And the money to live anywhere they choose.

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    Mute Martin Mongan
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    Oct 5th 2023, 4:33 PM

    @Garret Fawl: why do you think the big oil producers in the Middle East are making huge strides in opening up for tourism and being playgrounds for the mega rich? Because they know oil won’t last forever

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    Mute Gearoid O'Ceilleachair
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    Oct 5th 2023, 1:07 PM

    We’re the Met Eireann people brought before considerate politicians who were confident enough to affirm the planet turns once every 24-hours, the meteorologists would insist that their research doesn’t extend to astronomy.

    In short, they couldn’t or wouldn’t affirm a fact that all know to be true as temperatures fall as a location rotates into the dark hemisphere and rise as the location turns through the light hemisphere every day

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    Mute Michael Fielding
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    Oct 5th 2023, 1:09 PM

    @Gearoid O’Ceilleachair: what? Jesus wept.

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    Mute Gearoid O'Ceilleachair
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    Oct 5th 2023, 1:45 PM

    The baby you have in your arms will come to appreciate what you cannot because of me. The Earth turns once every 24-hours and a thousand times in a thousand 24-hour days.

    Most of you are cheerleaders for scientific method modelling so experience neither sorrow nor joy hence you lose the ability to weep.

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    Mute ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere
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    Oct 5th 2023, 1:55 PM

    @Michael Fielding: I’m wondering if the “Gearoid O’Ceilleachair” account is some form of AI testing.

    Well, maybe just the ‘A’.

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    Mute john mac
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    Oct 5th 2023, 8:42 PM

    Holy mackerel batman

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    Mute John Meade
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    Oct 6th 2023, 11:15 AM

    And “eamon “salad box” ryan thinks taxing the holes off irish citizens will save the planet. You couldn’t make this stuff up

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