DUBAI, United Arab Emirates —The main government of UAE-dependent strength firm Crescent Petroleum on Tuesday claimed that blaming the oil and fuel marketplace for the climate crisis “is like blaming farmers for obesity.”
His comments come at the mid-place of the U.N.’s greatest and most significant once-a-year local weather conference, with many at the COP28 talks in Dubai contacting for heads of state from almost 200 nations to agree to a fossil gasoline phase out.
The burning of coal, oil and gasoline is by considerably the premier contributor to weather transform, accounting for extra than a few-quarters of global greenhouse gas emissions.
“Blaming the producers of oil and gas for weather alter is like blaming farmers for obesity. It really is our societal consumption that is the challenge,” Crescent Petroleum CEO Majid Jafar explained to CNBC’s Dan Murphy on Tuesday.
“Now, we will nonetheless need to have oil and gas throughout the changeover and there is no circumstance, even the most ambitious scenario, that does not involve that.”
Majid Jafar, chief executive officer of Crescent Petroleum Co., correct, provides Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, chief govt officer of Abu Dhabi Countrywide Oil Co. (ADNOC) and president of COP28, heart, a scarf in the colors of the United Arab Emirates national flag for the duration of the Summit on Methane and Other Non-CO2 Greenhouse Gases on day 3 of the COP28 climate meeting at Expo Town in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Saturday, Dec. 2, 2023.
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Between a flurry of pledges in the initially couple times of COP28 was a commitment by some 50 oil and gasoline firms to cut methane emissions from their own operations by 2030.
U.N. Secretary-Common António Guterres stated that the announcement was “a action in the ideal route” for Big Oil and showed that the fossil gas business was “lastly starting to wake up.” Having said that, he stated the promises created “obviously slide small of what is necessary.”
Requested about Guterres’ opinions, Jafar stated he considered oil and gas would continue to perform a big position in the transition to cleaner energy systems.
“So, with all regard for that viewpoint, maybe he should commence with the U.N. alone. Possibly he must have traveled in this article in a wood boat, with sails, rowing when the wind died down,” he mentioned.
“It’s possible he should really transfer the U.N. staff to upstate New York to a forest someplace wherever they can increase their own food, without the need of fertilizers. He has to acquire away all their smartphones, they can not use email, they can use possibly carrier pigeon for U.N. communications.”
IEA warning to Significant Oil
Jafar stated he considered it was essential to create oil and gasoline in a “cleaner” way but insisted that countries across the globe will carry on to rely on fossil fuel use.
“We’re in fact failing on all three legs of the so-termed electricity trilemma: sustainability, affordability and availability. We have acquired to maintain that in head,” he explained.
Huge Oil’s presence at the U.N. local climate talks has extensive been a resource of rivalry, with several sharply critical of the scale of accessibility that fossil gas lobbyists show up to have each calendar year.
Some others, which include former U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, believe that that the participation of power giants need to be welcomed at events these types of as COP28.
The Intercontinental Electrical power Agency explained late last month that the fossil fuel marketplace faces a “moment of real truth” about their part in the world wide strength process and the local weather disaster.
“With the planet suffering the impacts of a worsening local weather crisis, continuing with business enterprise as usual is neither socially nor environmentally dependable,” the IEA’s Birol reported on Nov. 23.
“The industry requirements to dedicate to truly serving to the environment meet up with its power needs and local climate objectives,” he added.