COP28 Leader’s Oil Giant to Splurge $1 Billion Monthly on Fossil Fuels this Decade, Global Witness Reports

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) oil giant, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), led by COP28 president Sultan al-Jaber, is raising eyebrows for planning to invest over $1 billion each month in fossil fuels throughout this decade. This revelation comes from a recent analysis by Global Witness, an international non-governmental organization.

What’s striking is that this enormous commitment to fossil fuels sharply contradicts ADNOC’s earlier pledge to achieve net-zero emissions by 2045. However, ADNOC disputes the findings, claiming that the analysis is based on flawed assumptions.

This news surfaces just ahead of the COP28 climate summit, set to take place in Dubai from November 30 to December 12, 2023. This event is poised to be a pivotal moment in the global fight against climate change.

Sultan al-Jaber, who holds dual roles as ADNOC’s CEO and COP28 conference president, has faced criticism from various quarters, including civil society groups, U.S., and EU lawmakers. Nevertheless, some government ministers have defended his dual responsibilities.

Global Witness’s analysis, exclusively shared with ImpactWealth.Org, highlights that ADNOC is planning to spend an average of $1.14 billion per month on oil and gas production alone until 2030. Remarkably, this aligns with the United Nations’ goal of achieving a 45% reduction in global emissions by 2030 to prevent a climate catastrophe.

The data suggests that ADNOC’s investment in fossil fuels will outpace its spending on low-carbon solutions by almost seven times up to 2030. By 2050, ADNOC is projected to pour $387 billion into oil and gas, the primary drivers of the climate crisis.

In response to Global Witness’s findings, an ADNOC spokesperson emailed ImpactWealth.Org, stating, “The analysis and assumptions regarding ADNOC’s capital expenditure program beyond the company’s current five-year business plan (2023 to 2027) are speculative and therefore incorrect.”

Earlier this year, ADNOC announced its commitment to allocate $15 billion for investments in low-carbon solutions by 2030, encompassing clean energy, carbon capture and storage, and electrification projects.

Global Witness based its projections on an analysis of ADNOC’s anticipated capital expenditures, exploratory spending, and operational expenses from 2023 to 2050, relying on data from Rystad Energy’s UCube database. While not publicly accessible, Rystad Energy’s data is widely accepted by major oil and gas firms and international organizations.

Patrick Galey, a senior investigator at Global Witness, criticized fossil fuel companies for touting their green initiatives while heavily investing in polluting oil and gas. He commented, “He is a fossil fuel boss, plain and simple, saying one thing while his company does the other.”

Global Witness, established 30 years ago, aims to curb the oil and gas industry’s contribution to global warming and ensure a responsible energy transition, among other goals.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, responsible for the COP28 leader conferences, has not yet commented on Global Witness’s analysis.

Sultan al-Jaber, the COP28 president, previously served as the CEO of Masdar, an Abu Dhabi-based renewable energy company that has invested over $30 billion in renewable energy projects worldwide. Al-Jaber emphasized that limiting global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius is a top priority for the COP28 Leader summit.

The Paris Agreement, which aims to limit global temperature increases to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, identifies 1.5 degrees Celsius as a critical threshold to prevent severe climate impacts.

The International Energy Agency has asserted that further oil, gas, or coal development is incompatible with the goal of limiting global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

In response to queries from Impact Wealth, an ADNOC spokesperson stated that global energy demand is on the rise due to population growth and emphasized the need for oil and gas even in energy transition scenarios. ADNOC pledged to reduce emissions and achieve near-zero methane emissions by 2030 while increasing investments in renewables and zero-carbon energy solutions.

A separate report from Global Witness and Oil Change International last year revealed that 20 of the world’s largest oil and gas companies were projected to spend a combined $932 billion on new fossil fuel projects by the end of the decade. Russian state-owned company Gazprom, ExxonMobil, and Chevron were among the top spenders on fossil fuel development.