Report: UAE’s new climate targets are not enough

A report released Thursday said the new plan to reduce emissions approved by the UAE, the host of the twenty-eighth session of the COP28 Climate-Related Conference, considers “not enough”.

The report alleged that the oil-rich Gulf state plans to increase its production.

Last week, the UAE, which will host COP28 from November 30 to December 12, released an update on its climate commitments under the Paris Agreement, technically known as nationally determined contributions.

The new plan sets an ambitious target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 19 percent by 2030 over 2019 levels, compared with the previous equivalent of 7.5 percent, according to the report.

The emissions of the country’s ten million people represent half of France’s emissions (225 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2019, compared to France’s 430 million).

But for the Climate Action Monitor, led by environmental NGOs, the plans to increase fossil fuel production are “unfeasible”, even if they are better than previous plans.

“Although the UAE has updated its targets, unlike many other governments, it is still far from the right track, especially in terms of implementing the policies needed to achieve its targets and move away from fossil fuels,” the report quoted Santiago Woollands of the NuClimate Institute as saying.

The world is still a long way from the Paris Agreement’s path of limiting global warming to less than 2°C, and preferably 1.5°C, compared to pre-industrial levels.

Last week, the UAE’s climate change minister admitted that the updated UAE plan was not in line with the Paris Agreement and pledged to strengthen it. “We’re not there yet,” said Maryam Al Muhairi.

For its part, the “Climate Action Monitor” panel considers that there is a “significant and worrying” gap between the policies in place in the country and the “nationally determined contribution” and the actions required to comply with the 1.5°C scenario. Experts point to a lack of detail on how to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

As with all countries that sign the Paris agreement, the plan relates only to national emissions, not counting the number resulting from the burning of oil exported by the country, which produces about three million barrels a day, according to OPEC.

National oil major ADNOC plans to invest another $150 billion in the expansion of the oil and gas sector.

However, the country aims to reduce emissions across all sectors, including tripling renewable energy and focusing on electric cars.

ADNOC CEO Sultan Al-Jaber, who will chair the COP28 conference, said he expects fossil fuels to continue to play a role, albeit a limited one, with the controversial help of carbon capture and storage devices.