Over 100 US congressmen are demanding the ouster of the President-designate of COP28; Sultan Al Jaber.
Al Jaber is the President of the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and will lead the talks slated for November this year in the United Arab Emirates.
In the letter, the congressmen in their letter are also demanding for immediate steps to “limit the influence of polluting industries, particularly major fossil fuel industry players whose business strategies lie at clear odds with the central goals of the Paris Agreement, at gatherings of the UNFCC”.
The letter is addressed to USA President Joe Biden, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres and Simon Stiell, the executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.
“In this moment of great urgency, we must unblock the barriers that have kept us from advancing strong global collaboration to address climate change. One of the largest barriers to strong climate action has been and remains the political influence and obstruction of the fossil fuel industry and other major polluting industries,” reads the letter in part.
The congressmen say they have noted with concern the growing number of attendants of the Conference of Parties by actors in the fossil fuel industry. This, they argue, makes it difficult for concrete progress to be made on deals that cut greenhouse gases in line with the agreed global goals.
“It did not escape our attention that at least 636 lobbyists from the oil and gas industries registered to attend last year’s COP—an increase of more than 25% over the previous year. When the number of attendees representing polluting corporate actors, which have a vested financial interest in maintaining the status quo, is larger than the delegations of nearly every country in attendance, it is easy to see how their presence could obstruct climate action,” notes the leaders.
Ahead of the November meeting, the US leaders have also demanded that corporations willing to participate be subjected to new rules of engagements. These they say must include new policies requiring participating companies to submit audited corporate political influencing statements. The statements they insist must disclose climate-related lobbying, campaign contributions, and funding of trade associations and organizations active on energy and climate issues.