The Climate Question
The Climate Question
Should the UAE host a big climate summit?
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November 26, 2023
27 minutes
Available for over a year
As the world’s attention turns to this year’s COP summit in the UAE, questions remain about the host country and conference president.
It’s not the first time that an oil-producing country has hosted the climate change summit. But some environmental campaigners are unhappy about COP28 being held in the United Arab Emirates, and the choice of conference president, Dr. Sultan Al-Jaber – the CEO of the national oil company, ADNOC.
However, supporters say that the country is extremely vulnerable to the effects of climate change, so it has as much of a right to host the conference as anyone else. Meanwhile, Dr Al-Jaber boasts considerable experience working in renewables – having previously run the UAE’s renewable energy company MASDAR.
So what’s really going on? To find out more, presenter Graihagh Jackson is joined by:
Sam Fenwick, presenter of the BBC World Service programme ‘Business Daily’
Fiona Harvey, Environment editor at The Guardian
Zeina Khalil Hajj, Head of Global Campaigning and Organising at 350.org
Mia Moisio, climate policy expert at New Climate Institute and Climate Action Tracker
Producer: Ben Cooper
Researchers: Shorouk Elkobrosi and Octavia Woodward
Series Producer: Simon Watts
Editor: China Collins
Sound engineer: Tom Brignell
Production co-ordinators: Jacqui Johnson and Sophie Hill