John Gibbons: It was always a high risk strategy to entrust Cop28 to a petro-state

Misgivings around the bona fides of the UAE in this summit have proven to be true. But is our own Government any more honest?

Cop28 President Sultan al-Jaber. Picture: AP

It was always a high risk strategy to entrust the running of the crucial intergovernmental climate negotiations to a petro-state, and then to appoint the boss of its national oil company as president of Cop28. And so it has transpired.

In a bad-tempered zoom call a week before the Cop28 conference kicked off in Dubai, Sultan Al Jaber claimed there was “no science” supporting the view that a phase-out of fossil fuels is needed to avoid dangerous climate change.