As host to this year's U.N. climate summit, United Arab Emirates has a lot riding on the event. So much so that the oil rich Gulf nation wants to limit public discussion of climate change and human rights issues.
That's according to an audio recording of a meeting among UAE officials that was obtained by the Centre for Climate Reporting and shared exclusively with The New York Times, which first reported on it on Friday.
The audio recording, which the London-based nonprofit also posted online, reveals UAE officials anticipate the need to “minimize” attacks on the nation's human rights record as the summit looms in late November.
The Bonn-based U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, or UNFCCC, is a platform for the Conference of Parties, known as COPs. UAE plans to host the nearly two-week long COP28 at Expo City Dubai.
COP28 will be led by UAE's minister of industry and advanced technology, Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, who also heads one of the world's biggest oil firms.
Environmental groups and climate campaigners are up in arms over the prospect of entrusting the fate of the world's climate talks to the chief executive of the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company who also heads the renewable energy company Masdar in Abu Dhabi.
The purpose of COP28 is to fulfill nations' obligations under the 2015 Paris Agreement, which committed the world to an upper limit of 2° Celsius average temperature rise, and, preferably, no more than a 1.5° increase.
In 2022, the global mean temperature was 1.15° above the pre-industrial average. Experts say sticking to a 1.5° increase will require cutting carbon emissions by at least 45% cut by 2030, and reaching net zero by 2050.
UAE vows to be carbon neutral by 2050 despite its rapid growth as a global center for business and tourism amid a range of serious environmental challenges such as the scarcity of water in the Middle East.
The audio recording, made by an undisclosed participant and verified by the Times, "offers a rare insight into how the government hopes to limit scrutiny at the summit," the nonprofit organization said on Friday.
Officials plan to "dodge questions on issues such as LGBTQ+ and labor rights, which in their view have no 'connection to climate change,' to ensure COP28 is not used as free pass to throw everything at us," it said.
Inclusiveness vs. scripted talking points
The government hopes to manage its reputation with the help of PR specialists. UAE officials taking part in the recorded meeting spoke of a survey of 20,000 people in 20 countries on their perceptions of the UAE.
One of the participants, Sconaid McGeachin, acknowledged that COPs increasingly are an "outlet" for young activists, and it's likely they will attempt to "attack the UAE" with criticism of its human rights record.
McGeachin, the UAE's director of communications and marketing for COP28, noted activists did the same last year at COP27 by drawing attention to Egypt’s repression and human rights violations and at the FIFA World Cup by criticizing Qatar's migrant labor and human rights abuses.
"We need to preserve the reputation of the UAE, and to look at how can we protect that and enhance the reputation, and to try and minimize those attacks as much as possible," said Sconaid McGeachin, director of communications and marketing at COP28.
McGeachin suggested that COP28 organizers conduct outreach to human rights organizations that have criticized UAE's human rights record. An unidentified official with UAE's Human Rights Office advised taking defensive PR measures "so the COP is not used as a free pass to throw everything at us." UAE's foreign ministry and McGeachin both declined to comment for the Times article.
Amnesty International’s Marta Schaaf, who directs its climate program for economic, social justice and corporate accountability, said UAE's private agenda appears to be at odds with its public pledge to hold an inclusive summit.
“UAE’s priority at COP28 appears to be greenwashing its fossil fuel expansion plans and massaging its own reputation by seeking to avoid discussion of its dismal human rights record and continuing abuses," said Schaaf.
“UAE has pledged to hold an inclusive COP," she said, "but this ambition will fall flat if it limits public debate to carefully-scripted talking points."
