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

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

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 comments were “incredibly concerning” and “verging on climate denial”, scientists said, and they were at odds with the position of the UN secretary general, António Guterres.

  • Daxtron2@startrek.website
    0·
    10 months ago

    How do we fix this situation without straight up eliminating the people in power who refuse to even acknowledge the existence of climate change?

  • Norgur@kbin.social
    0·
    10 months ago

    I mean, yeah, science doesn’t say “we need to absolutely phase out fossil fuels”, it says “we need to cut back on greenhouse gases”, so we could cut back everything else to achieve that and make mister sultan guy happy and allow him to create another artificial peninsula in the shape of a middle finger this time or whatever… Oooooor, we could cut back on fossil fuels because that’s actually the easiest option. Sorry if my wish for my son to have a planet with a working ecosystem to live on isn’t overriden by your wish for a massive gold Ferrari or whatever you Islamic moneybags like to buy these days…

    • SnuggleSnail@ani.social
      0·
      10 months ago

      Why the twist into xenophobia in the end? The comment could have been 100% on point. Now it’s like Hitler being vegan - nice, but overshadowed by other stuff.

      • Norgur@kbin.social
        0·
        10 months ago

        I replied below with an explanation. I’m not aware of any way my comment could be seen as applying to any other type of person than Saudi Billionaire Oligarchs, so please tell me.if there is some language thing that would make you think my comment could be seen as derogatory to any other person. I’m not a native speaker, so there might be just a language issue.

        As for your comparison: that’s not fitting now, is it. Hitler being vegan (he wasn’t, he was vegetarian) is a minor detail that gets overshadowed by the main course which is mass murder and war.

        My comment is the other way around at best. Let’s not compare the crimes of Adolf Hitler to some bloke on the internet messing up his wording. That’s disrespectful to the people Hitler and his dick face cronies made suffer for no fucking reason.

  • The Barto@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    10 months ago

    Al Jaber also said a phase-out of fossil fuels would not allow sustainable development “unless you want me to take the world back into caves, if you take away our endless flow of money."

  • yojimbo@sopuli.xyz
    0·
    10 months ago

    …and just a few hours later: claims of being mistinterpreted (again - Guardian). Poor princeling - never even imagined someone could speak back to him and now has no idea how to act. Maybe shouldn’t have left the cave after all 🤔

  • Nonameuser678@aussie.zone
    0·
    10 months ago

    I know these have mostly been performative for a while but I feel like this one has really symbolised the crossover into entire absurdity.