I chose this article because it shows the complexity and difficult relationships that impact any attempt to exit the carbon energy era. John Kerry, I think, has been doing about as good a job as any American official could. It isn’t perfect, or even sometimes good, but he is at least leaning in the right direction. Given the wealth involved this is going to be a very painful and fraught transition. It would help a great deal if we have a Democratic majority in the House and Senate, and a Democratic president, since the Republicans are completely in bed with corporations in the carbon energy industries.
U.S. climate envoy John Kerry (left), and United Arab Emirates oil chief Sultan al-Jaber (second from left), attend the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Forum in Abu Dhabi on Jan. 14. Credit: Karim Sahib / AFP / Getty
The Biden administration’s public embrace of the United Arab Emirates oil chief running the global climate talks brings political risks. Can it yield a deal to slash fossil fuel pollution?
Climate activists and progressive lawmakers unleashed their scorn when the CEO of one of the world’s most powerful oil companies got the job of helming this year’s global climate summit.
“Do you take us for fools?” former U.S. Vice President Al Gore asked. “Completely ridiculous,” Swedish activist Greta Thunberg said. Hundreds of green groups and 130 lawmakers in the EU and U.S. joined in.
But United Arab Emirates oil chief Sultan al-Jaber has a defender in his corner at the summit known as COP28, which debuts Thursday in Dubai: John Kerry, whose two and a half years as President Joe Biden’s […]
