The Guardian

Sultan Al Jaber, who is state oil CEO, had said phase-out of fossil fuels would take world ‘back into caves’

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The president of Cop28 has been forced into a fierce defence of his views on climate science, after the Guardian revealed his comment that there was “no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says that the phase-out of fossil fuel is what’s going to achieve 1.5C”.

Sultan Al Jaber, who is also the chief executive of the United Arab Emirates’ state oil company, Adnoc, said at a hastily arranged press conference at the summit in Dubai: “I respect the science in everything I do. I have repeatedly said that it is the science that has guided the principles or strategy as Cop28 president. We have always built everything, every step of the way, on the science, on the facts.”

Sultan Al Jaber’s claim that green policies damage economic growth is wrong and highly damaging

For months Sultan Al Jaber, the president of the Cop28 climate negotiations in Dubai, has been insisting that there is no conflict with his day job, chief executive of the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) state oil company.

Instead, he argued, the dual role enabled him to persuade fossil fuel companies to change. And some early successes in the talks provided some credibility to that claim.

Geoffrey Lean is a specialist environment correspondent and author

The Cop28 president, Sultan Al Jaber, held a press conference after the Guardian's report on his comments claiming 'there is no science out there, that says the phase-out of fossil fuels is what's going to achieve 1.5C'. Al Jaber, who is also the chief executive of the United Arab Emirates’ state oil company, Adnoc, said he had been misrepresented and gave an impassioned defence of his background and belief in science. He then went on to say 'the phase-down and the phase-out of fossil fuels, is essential' and accused those who reported his initial comments of 'undermining' his message

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• Cop28 president says there is ‘no science’ behind demands for phase-out of fossil fuels

A taxpayer-funded drive for ‘blue’ hydrogen is good news for fossil-fuel lobbyists, but bad news for the climate crisis

With the impacts of the climate crisis so apparent for all to see, it is becoming ever harder for governments to fob off voters with promises of action tomorrow. At Cop28 we’ll see increasingly overt action by fossil fuel companies and petrostates to preserve their traditional power. But it is just as important to scrutinise emerging so-called green or low-emission solutions, which sound plausible, but are often simply big oil’s business-as-usual in a new guise.

The UK’s much touted low carbon hydrogen standard (LCHS) is an example of this. While hydrogen can be a low-emission fuel, the UK’s plan is quite clearly a fig leaf for “blue” hydrogen – which is made from fossil fuels – and according to one study, is even more at odds with our commitment to limiting global temperature rises to 1.5C than burning coal.

Kevin Anderson is professor of energy and climate change at the University of Manchester. Simon Oldridge is an independent researcher

Cop28: Can fossil fuel companies transition to clean energy?
On Tuesday 5 December, 8pm-9.15pm GMT, join Damian Carrington, Christiana Figueres, Tessa Khan and Mike Coffin for a livestreamed discussion on whether fossil fuel companies can transition to clean energy. Book tickets here or at theguardian.live

Summit negotiations continue in wake of Sultan Al Jaber’s claim there is ‘no science’ indicating a phase-out of fossil fuels is needed to restrict global heating to 1.5C

• Cop28 president says there is ‘no science’ behind demands for phase-out of fossil fuels

John Kerry, the US special envoy for climate was just asked on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme in the UK what he thinks of Damian Carrington’s scoop that Sultan Al Jaber said there was ‘no science’ behind demands for phase-out of fossil fuels.

He was very diplomatic in his response and appeared to give the oil chief and Cop28 president the benefit of the doubt.

“What you have to do is clearly reduce the emissions. They have made it clear we need a 43% minimum reduction in emissions by 2030, and we need net zero 2050 in order to meet the goal of keeping 1.5. We’ve got all kinds of ways of getting there. Renewables are the one technology we really know we can deploy today and it has the impact we need.”

“We are not only signed up to that, president Biden on behalf of the US voted to join the g7 where we said we must phase out unabated fossil fuel. We have to do that yes otherwise you cannot reach net zero by 2050. What we are trying to figure out is how we can capture those emissions, or reduce those emissions, or not make those emissions in the first place.

“I think the only question here is not whether or not you are going to reduce emissions, it’s what means are you going to use to go at this to provide the energy you want for your country but also keeping faith with the reduction of the emissions that are creating the climate crisis.”

Exclusive: Labour leader tells Guardian at Cop28 that Britain is wanted back in ‘leading role’ as he accuses Sunak of retreating

The UK will come back strongly to the world stage to “lead from the front” in tackling the climate crisis under a Labour government, Keir Starmer has pledged, after meeting world leaders at the Cop28 summit in Dubai.

“There’s an overwhelming feeling here among world leaders that they want to see the UK back playing a leading role,” he told the Guardian at the UN climate talks. “That’s why our statement of intent that under a Labour government we will be back playing a leading role has been really well received.

It isn’t just our planet’s future that’s at risk: soon the artefacts buried deep in our soil may be lost for ever

A remarkable discovery was made 50 years ago at Vindolanda, the Roman fort below Hadrian’s Wall. Four metres down, the archaeologist Robin Birley and his team came upon a mass of black, damp and stinky organic material. Miraculously preserved in this anaerobic time capsule were pieces of leather, including Roman shoes, some fragments of textile and numerous pieces of wood. These included a couple of thin, postcard-like, wooden leaf-tablets, less than 2mm thick, with strange marks on the surface that turned out to be cursive Latin written in ink.

The very first tablet discovered was a fragment of a letter, telling an unnamed soldier that socks and underpants had been dispatched, presumably in response to a plea for additional protection against the very damp and cold that would later preserve the note deep below ground. Now, the climate crisis is irreversibly altering these conditions, destroying Vindolanda’s buried treasures faster than archaeologists can get to them.

Consumers left angry and dismayed when they found out the truth about these terms, says Advertising Standards Authority study

Plastic bottles, takeaway cups and food packaging that could take an unlimited amount of time to break down are being advertised as “biodegradable”, with the advertising regulator calling for more clarity on such claims from businesses.

British consumers believe they are making green choices while disposing of waste when they are often not, according to a new report. The study, from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), based on extensive interviews with consumers, found widespread misunderstandings around common terms such as “biodegradable”, “compostable” and “recyclable”, leaving participants angry when they discovered what they meant.

The focus on individual choices has left us frustrated. Now an EU-led ‘climate club’ is our best hope of systemic action

Something flipped last summer in both the visibility of the climate crisis and in the space the media devotes to it. Apparently, all it took was for the air to turn orange and unbreathable above Wall Street and for smoke to smother holidaymakers in Greece.

And yet, despite the fact that the conversation finally feels like it is approaching the level of ubiquitousness that the crisis merits, the solutions being proposed leave me deflated. And that’s not merely because of the lunatic hypocrisy of holding the Cop28 in Dubai, where it will be presided over by the CEO of the world’s 12th-largest fossil-fuel company.

Alexander Hurst is a Guardian columnist. He is a France-based writer and an adjunct lecturer at Sciences Po, the Paris Institute of Political Studies

Dakar’s nine-mile-long Hann Bay used to be known as one of West Africa’s most beautiful, lined with traditional fishing villages, villas and tourist attractions. But for the last 20 years it has been at the centre of the city’s industrialisation, with 80% of the city’s industry nearby. Today it is one of Dakar’s most polluted areas, with canals spilling raw sewage and chemicals on to the beach and into the sea

I’m still recovering from the glittering spectacle of Cop27

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Campaigner claims ministers do not have legal right to alter timeline of carbon budget pledges at will

Chris Packham has filed a high court legal challenge to the UK government over its decision to weaken key climate policies.

The broadcaster and environmental campaigner has applied for a judicial review of the government’s decision to ditch the timetable for phasing out petrol and diesel powered cars and vans, gas boilers, off-grid fossil fuel domestic heating and minimum energy ratings for homes.

Exclusive: former US vice-president and climate activist says phase-out can be only measure of success for Cop28

An agreement by countries to phase out fossil fuels would be “one of the most significant events in the history of humanity”, according to Al Gore, amid wrangling by governments at Cop28.

It would be a “welcome surprise” if world leaders agreed at the climate talks to call for an end to fossil fuels, but such a declaration would have “enormous impact” upon the world, Gore told the Guardian at the gathering in the United Arab Emirates.

The planet faces an existential threat if we do not transition from the current extractive model of growth to a low-carbon economy

Colombia’s economy is dependent on fossil fuels, which account for about half of its exports. But at the UN climate summit this weekend, Gustavo Petro, the country’s president, committed to stop the expansion of coal, oil and gas exploitation and reorient his nation away from such “poisons”. Colombia is the first big economy to endorse a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty. This is a sensible, globally significant step – which raises the question of why other carbon-exporting OECD members, such as Britain, shouldn’t follow suit.

What is crazy is that governments plan to produce more than double the amount of fossil fuels in 2030 that is consistent with a “safe” global temperature rise of 1.5C. The paradox the treaty seeks to address is that the Paris agreement does not mention the fossil fuels responsible for global heating. But a handful of nations could show how phasing out fossil fuels can lead to sustainable green development and rebut the absurd denialism of Sultan Al Jaber, the oil boss and Cop28 president. There are precedents: the 1997 mine ban treaty began with few backers, but was later ratified by 164 countries.

Lack of public chargers blamed for decision to be only ‘zero-emissions capable’ by April 2024

London’s biggest minicab company has U-turned on plans for all its cars to produce zero emissions this year, blaming a lack of public chargers in the capital.

Addison Lee said it had spent £30m on new Volkswagen Multivans, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), which combine a small battery with a polluting internal combustion engine, and admitted that the switch to electric cars had been harder than it had expected.

Thousands of activists to attend conference in UAE which has a poor record for demonstrations

Cop28 organisers and the UN body that oversees the annual climate conference have failed to clarify whether activists who travel to Dubai are safe to demonstrate outside the conference area, putting civil society at risk in a country where protest is normally prohibited.

At least 70,000 people are registered to attend the conference, including thousands of activists and members of civil society, who normally hold protests around the conference area.

Tolkien’s hostility to rampant industrialisation should chime with nations represented in Dubai

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Back in the 1960s, no self-respecting hippy would be seen dead without a well-thumbed copy of the Lord of the Rings. Along with a copy of Sgt Pepper and the Tibetan Book of the Dead, it came to epitomise the counterculture.

Times change. Tolkien’s most prominent fan at present is Giorgia Meloni, the most rightwing prime minister Italy has had since the second world war. That has set alarm bells clanging.

Exclusive: UAE’s Sultan Al Jaber says phase-out of coal, oil and gas would take world ‘back into caves’

• Cop28 live – latest updates

The president of Cop28, Sultan Al Jaber, has claimed there is “no science” indicating that a phase-out of fossil fuels is needed to restrict global heating to 1.5C, the Guardian and the Centre for Climate Reporting can reveal.

Al Jaber also said a phase-out of fossil fuels would not allow sustainable development “unless you want to take the world back into caves”.

The world leaders’ summit is over, and the negotiators take centre stage. Sunday’s official themes are health, relief, recovery and peace

The British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has been facing criticism at home for the brevity of his visit to the climate conference, having visited for less than a day. He has also been accused of hypocrisy for pushing for a phase-out of fossil fuels only weeks after approving new oil and gas licences in the North Sea.

Al Gore, the former US vice-president, said: “I am not impressed with prime minister Sunak’s climate policies. I think they’re terrible. They’re very disappointing.”

People in the Hunter and Illawarra fear offshore turbines could damage marine life and tourism, but parties are accused of ‘weaponising’ the issue

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Frank Future didn’t expect to find an ally in Peter Dutton over his concerns that the offshore wind farm proposed for the Hunter region could have an irreparable impact on the environment.

“He came out with a group of us on that one over there,” he says, pointing to a boat floating metres from the whale watching vessel that he’s run in Nelson Bay for nearly 30 years. “He really saw that there was limited community consultation before that zone was declared.”