UN climate summit is being hosted by a big oil exporter

One of the largest oil exporting countries in the world, the United Arab Emirates, is hosting this year's COP28 climate meeting, which is presided over by a significant figure in that country's oil business.

Environmentalists have expressed outrage, claiming that the fossil fuel lobby has manipulated the climate discussion to advance their own profit-maximizing agendas. The UAE's engagement has ignited a debate about whether nations that largely rely on exporting fossil fuels have a role in the climate sphere. Additionally, views differ.

Sultan Al Jaber, who will preside over the summit in November, has two highly important positions in the United Arab Emirates. In addition to serving as the CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), he also serves as the UAE's climate ambassador and is in charge of directing the country's energy strategy. Before rising to the position of top oil executive, he spent more than a decade handling the climate portfolio. He was instrumental in the founding of Abu Dhabi's clean energy business Masdar in 2006 and the relocation of the International Renewable Energy Agency's headquarters there in 2009.

The UAE wants the world to understand that both fossil fuels and renewable energy sources must be a part of the global energy balance and do not have to be substitutes for one another.