MALIK: Do not heed Al Jaber's COP28 statements
Column: On the Good Life
The COP28 climate summit is being held in Dubai this year, and with less and less time before climate change becomes irreversible, the pressure on the summit and its leaders is obviously increasing.
COPs, or Conferences of the Parties, are how "the world organizes its collective response to the global challenge of climate change." As climate change becomes increasingly relevant in our lives and futures, the climate summit must discuss many factors and issues in order to make a clear, concerted effort.
Last year at the COP27, one of the biggest issues on the table was climate justice. This led to the creation of the loss and damage fund to help vulnerable countries receive aid for the destruction caused by climate change.
Additionally, the summit reaffirmed its focus on keeping the rise in temperature to a 1.5-degree limit — a goal that the world is not on track to achieve as of right now.
Due to the importance of this summit, it is extremely disappointing and disheartening to see that Sultan Al Jaber, the president of COP28, stated during a meeting that there "is 'no science' indicating that a phase-out of fossil fuels is needed to restrict global heating to 1.5 (degrees Celsius)" and that the phase-out is impossible unless "you want to take the world back into caves."
Al Jaber's personal conflict of interest is obvious, as the president of the COP28 is also an executive at the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. He is also a part of Masdar, a renewable energy company in the United Arab Emirates.
Al Jaber's comments are interesting, considering that fossil fuels are the largest contributors to global warming by far. So, just on a factual basis, the correlation between fossil fuels and global warming cannot be ignored.
Furthermore, the comments discussing caves clearly point to Al Jaber's own personal interests: human technological advancements over future life.
I am not saying that he is self-centered or selfish, but rather that his words are too careless in a discussion that is creating a plan to help preserve the future.
The exaggerated statement about the caves is obviously unlikely. But is it not important that if you serve as the president at a conference for remediating global warming, you care about the effects of climate change over the comforts of modern life that are afforded to us by unsustainable practices?
Personally, if the never-ending doom of climate change makes me question whether all my efforts to create a future for myself came at the expense of less electricity every day or less traveling, I would be okay with that expense.
Based on his words, I can't be sure of the same for Al Jaber.
The phase-out for fossil fuels at COP28 has a large number of backers: more than 100 countries already support a phase-out plan. Al Jaber's questioning of its importance is poorly timed because it provides a method with which countries can begin to make exceptions, rather than meeting their promised goals.
Consistently, we have seen climate summits get together, come up with a set of guidelines and goals and proceed not to meet them. Despite this process seeming futile, it is important to continue to have a standard in order to reach a goal collectively.
This is not the time to make exceptions or excuses.
The reality is that it is highly unlikely for the world to rid itself completely of dependence on fossil fuels. Yet, it is still important that we continue to limit our fossil fuel use and prioritize ways of diminishing our dependence on these harmful resources.
If we take phasing out fossil fuels off the table completely, we are working toward an inequitable goal. Questions — such as which countries can continue to use fossil fuels, how much allowance is permitted and what types of fossil fuels are allowed and why — are bound to come up.
All these questions are distractions from the end goal.
Ultimately, these far-fetched plans are needed in order to remind countries what to focus on at home to make changes toward a more sustainable future — one that needs to be believed in to exist.
Sehar Malik is a sophomore in the School of Arts and Sciences, majoring in molecular biology and biochemistry and minoring in French. Her column, "On the Good Life," runs on alternate Sundays.
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