Cyrus Engerer joins EU and US lawmakers in call for removal of COP28 chief

Cyrus Engerer has joined EU and US lawmakers who want oil executive Sultan Al Jaber removed as president of this year’s COP28 climate talks.

In a joint letter addressed to the UN, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and US President Joe Biden, more than 130 lawmakers warned of oil companies exerting “undue influence” over climate negotiations.

COP28 will be held in the United Arab Emirates later this year. The UAE’s appointment of Al Jaber, who runs the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, sparked controversy from the moment his name was announced. 

The lawmakers urged the leaders to advocate for the UAE’s withdrawal of the Al Jaber’s appointment.

“The decision to name as president of COP28 the chief executive of one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies – a company that has recently announced plans to add 7.6 billion barrels of oil to its production in the coming years, representing the fifth largest increase in the world – risks undermining the negotiations,” the lawmakers said.

They warned that having an oil company executive heading the talks would “severely jeopardize” the ability to restore public faith in the COP process. The lawmakers said a different leadership is necessary to help ensure that COP28 is “a serious and productive climate summit”.

Labour MEP Cyrus Engerer

Labour MEP Cyrus Engerer was the only Maltese MEP to sign the joint letter. Almost 100 MEPs put their name to the call, most hailing from the Greens and The Left groups in the European Parliament.

Engerer was joined by a handful of other Socialist and Democrat MEPs, while a couple of MEPs from Renew, the liberals, also signed the letter. Nobody from the European People’s Party signed the letter.

Signatories on the US side include more than 20 members of Congress as well as Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Sheldon Whitehouse, among others.

The lawmakers said that at least 636 lobbyists from the oil and gas industries registered

to attend last year’s COP—an increase of more than 25% over the previous year.

“When the number of attendees representing polluting corporate actors, which have a vested financial interest in maintaining the status quo, is larger than the delegations of nearly every country in attendance, it is easy to see how their presence could obstruct climate action,” they wrote.

COP28 is part of ongoing climate talks under the auspices of the UN, intended to halve global emissions to limit warming to a maximum of 1.5 °C.

A UN panel of climate experts, IPCC, has warned that maintaining the status quo would lead to a catastrophic 2.8°C temperature rise by the end of the century.