UAE state oil firm was able to read email exchanges about COP28 climate summit: Report

The upcoming United Nations COP28 climate summit has yet again come under fire after a report by the British newspaper,The Guardian, on Wednesday (June 7), revealed that an Emirati state oil firm was able to read email exchanges between organisers and was also “consulted” on how to respond to the media inquires. The climate summit host country, United Arab Emirates (UAE), had already garnered criticism from multiple environmental organisations as well as lawmakers over their pick to lead the negotiations in Dubai.

What did the British media report find?

The UAE, which is hosting COP28 in November, recently chose Sultan al-Jaber, head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), to lead the upcoming UN climate summit. The decision has since sparked multiple calls for him to step down citing a conflict of interest.

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The report comes after the COP28 previously claimed that its email system was a “standalone” and “separate” from that of the state oil company. However, The Guardian’s “expert technical analysis” showed that the COP28’s office shared email servers with Adnoc.

The British media report also claimed that it was not until their inquiries that the COP28’s office switched to a different serverlast week. The investigation first began in mid-May when the UK-based newspaper found links between UAE’s COP28 office and Adnoc after their inquiries intoUN climate chief Christiana Figueres’ criticism who called the Emirati oil chief’s approach “dangerous".

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The email response that The Guardian received contained the text, “Adnoc classification: internal.” When the COP28 office was asked about it, they said it “sought input from several subject matter experts regarding emissions, including Adnoc".The report added, “internal classification mark had become part of the email chain as a result.”

In response to a different inquiry, the COP28 office also assured that their content, including emails, was “on a standalone, firewall-protected network, supported by a separate COP28 IT team,” as quoted by The Guardian.

It was not until the previously mentioned “expert technical analysis” that they found that the oil company’s servers were used for both sending and receiving emails from the COP28 office.

The French Member of the European Parliament, Manon Aubry, has called the findings presented by The Guardian “an absolute scandal".

"An oil and gas company has found its way to the core of the organisation in charge of coordinating the phasing out of oil and gas," Aubry said.

She added, “It is like having a tobacco multinational overseeing the internal work of the World Health Organization,” as quoted by The Guardian.

Al-Jaber’s reported stance on the environment

As per AFP, while Al-Jaber favours the rapid development of renewable energy, he has also supposedly focused more on the use of controversial technologies to capture carbon dioxide as opposed to reducing emissions by limiting fossil fuels. However in a supposed change of stance, Al-Jaber urged countries to focus on “phasing out fossil fuel emissions,” reported Reuters.

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After a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday (June 7) both the EU and UAE have also pledged to support renewables in the upcoming climate summit. Ajoint statement by the EU and COP28 host said that both sides would “ensure maximum support on global 2030 targets for the tripling of renewable energy and doubling of energy efficiency.”

It added, “These targets would support the transition towards energy systems free of unabated fossil fuels.” This also comes a month after over 100 members of the US Congress and European Parliament called for Al-Jaber’s removal as it would threaten the integrity of negotiations.

(With inputs from agencies)

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