Sultan al-Jaber criticizes “repeated attempts to undermine the work of the COP28 presidency in Dubai.”

The Emirati head of the United Nations Climate Change Conference has insisted he respects climate science after coming under fire for a leaked video in which he questioned fossil fuel science.

Amid tough discussions about the future of fossil fuels, Sultan al-Jaber, who is also head of the UAE’s national oil company ADNOC, criticized “repeated attempts to undermine the work of the COP28 presidency in Dubai.”

“We are here because we believe very much in science and respect it,” al-Jaber said at a news conference on Monday.

Al-Jaber complained to reporters that “a statement taken out of context through misrepresentation” had received “maximum coverage.”

Underscoring how sensitive the issue has become, Jim Skea, the head of the U.N. panel tasked with assessing climate science, appeared alongside al-Jaber before reporters.

He said al-Jaber “was attentive to the science when we discussed it, and I think he fully understood it.”

Al-Jaber said global greenhouse gas emissions must be cut by 43 percent by 2030 to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels – a reduction recommended by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in Shea was determined.

The Guardian newspaper published a video on Sunday showing al-Jaber having a heated exchange with former Irish President Mary Robinson during an online forum.

“I am in no way joining any alarmist discussion,” al-Jaber said at the SHE Changes Climate online conference on November 21.

“I am factual and respect science, and there is no science or scenario that says phasing out fossil fuels is what will achieve 1.5 (degrees).”

The video sparked an outcry from NGOs already outraged by the appointment of an oil company boss to lead crucial climate negotiations.

“If the COP28 president is guided by science and 1.5°C remains his north star, he must draw the right conclusions: nothing less than a complete and rapid phase-out of fossil fuels will get us there,” said Romain Ioualalen from Oil Change International.

Exit or exit?

Al-Jaber said Monday that he had “said again and again that phasing out fossil fuels was inevitable.”

Although he also said it in the video, al-Jaber had previously spoken publicly only of the inevitability of an “exit” – a weaker term because it implies that fossil fuels would not disappear completely.

To add to the confusion, the COP28 Presidency website published a summary of the first days of talks, saying 22 heads of state and ministers discussed “phasing out fossil fuels.”

There was no mention of an exit, which many heads of state and government as well as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for in speeches on Friday and Saturday.

A first draft of a COP28 agreement released on Friday included both options – a “phase-out” of fossil fuels, which are the largest contributor to climate change.

Negotiators must now find common ground in talks due to end on December 12, with an agreement on fossil fuels seen as key to the success of COP28.

“Give space to the process”

Participants in the talks told the AFP news agency that the European Union, several Latin American countries and island states support the 1.5 degree target, which implies a rapid phase-out.

Other developed countries, including oil producers such as the United States, Canada, Norway and Australia, are also defending the 1.5 degree target but are pursuing less ambitious pathways away from fossil fuels.

Most African countries support a phase-out, although with a longer delay for developing countries.

The major producers Russia and Saudi Arabia as well as the largest consumer China reject the mention of fossil fuels in the text.

Al-Jaber advocated giving the process “the space it needs.” And if anything, judge us by what we deliver at the end of this COP.”