GETTING HEATED

COP28 President: ‘No Science’ Supports Calls to Phase Out Fossil Fuels

Sultan Al-Jaber said such a move would “take the world back into caves.”

The president of the COP28 climate summit claimed there is “no science” supporting calls for a phase-out of fossil fuels to limit global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius, provoking an angry backlash from climate scientists and advocates. Sultan al-Jaber’s comments, which were first reported by The Guardian, were made during a She Changes Climate panel event in November during a testy exchange with former Irish president Mary Robinson. Robinson said a COP28 commitment to phase out fossil fuels would have more “credibility” because al-Jaber is also the head of the UAE’s state oil company, Adnoc. In response, al-Jaber said “there is no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says the phase-out of fossil fuel is what’s going to achieve 1.5.” On Monday, he attempted to walk back the remarks by claiming he respects science “in everything I do” and called the phase-out of fossil fuels “inevitable.”