By Gloria Dickie
DUBAI (Reuters) – COP28 President Sultan Al Jaber on Monday defended his role as host of this year’s U.N. climate summit, insisting he understood and respected the science of climate change.
During a press conference, Al Jaber responded to a December 3 report in The Guardian newspaper about comments he made last month about the fossil fuel phase-out that led to criticism at COP28.
“I am quite surprised by the continued and repeated attempts to undermine the work of the COP28 presidency,” Al Jaber said on Monday.
The Guardian story quoted Al Jaber as saying at an online event on November 21 that “there is no science, or no scenario, that says the phase-out of fossil fuels will reach 1.5°C”.
During Monday’s press conference, Al Jaber complained to reporters that “one statement taken out of context with misrepresentation” had received “maximum attention”.
The UN’s climate science agency, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has said that limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2050 will require sharply reducing fossil fuel use and eliminating coal use.
IPCC President Jim Skea joined Al Jaber at the press conference and said he had had several meetings with the COP28 climate science chief. “Dr. Sultan paid attention to the science as we discussed it, and I think he fully understood it,” Skea said.
