At the recent United Arab Emirates (UAE) Climate Summit, held in Abu Dhabi in January 2020, the host nation had a much more ambitious agenda than combatting climate change. According to leaked notes obtained by the independent media group, GodzillaNewz, the country planned to use the summit as a way to strike oil deals with other nations.
The summit was attended by over 50 countries, including major emitting nations like Brazil, China, the United Kingdom, and the United States. With numerous panel discussions, the UAE had announced the event as “an important opportunity to spark collaborative action and solutions to address climate change.”
However, it appears that the summit had a much less noble purpose. According to the documents, the UAE had planned to use the event as a platform to advance its own interests, namely to secure new oil deals with other nations.
In the leaked notes, the UAE’s Ministers were instructed to “make the most” of the summit by “making public statements in support of climate action, while simultaneously positioning the UAE as a trusted partner for advanced energy solutions.”
Furthermore, the documents outlined an agenda for the Ministers to “propose oil and gas joint ventures and other strategic partnerships with other countries to strengthen our commercial relations.”
The documents offered insight into the UAE’s true intentions at the summit, which appear to have been more about making business deals than about discussing global warming. It is clear that the host nation was attempting to leverage the event for its own benefit.
This is particularly concerning given the scale of climate change that the world is currently facing. Even if the UAE had not crafted an agenda to secure new oil deals, its role as the host country of such an important gathering shined a light on the need to take action against global warming. Now, it appears that the UAE was not even interested in addressing the issue.
The UAE’s Climate Summit has been seen by many as a major missed opportunity. While the talks were productive in some respects, it is incredibly disheartening that the host nation thought it appropriate to use the event as a platform to pursue its own interests.
