The UK and US are climate hypocrites – why do we expect oil states to be any better?

The climate summit saw some important people make some big promises, writes climate expert Roger Harrabin. But a closer reading shows that Big Oil still controls the field when it comes to climate change

Cop28 climate summit president Sultan Al Jaber’s Abu Dhabi National Oil Company is investing $150bn in developing more oil and gas fields (AP)

Cop28 in Dubai closed in an explosion of tears, hugs and applause from exhausted and emotionally drained delegates and media. Not long beforehand they’d been cast down at the absence of fossil fuel promises in the draft text. Now the same Emirati oil man, the towering Sultan al Jaber, uplifted them with an agreement appearing to signal the end of the fossil fuel era. Were their emotions played just a little? It’s impossible to tell, although it certainly was a remarkable and unexpected agreement which probably couldn’t have been forged outside a fossil fuel nation.

But will this historic agreement keep us within the 1.5C temperature rise guardrail? Will it adequately help poorer countries adapt to climate change, cope with disasters and obtain clean energy? Does it herald the end of the fossil fuel era? No, to all of the above. Jim Skea, head of the science panel IPCC, gave me his headline reaction: “One hundred and ninety-eight countries agree transition away from fossil fuels… at some point in future.”

The geologist Prof Bill McGuire added: “What we needed was a binding roadmap to cutting emissions almost in half within 72 months but ended up with scraps. Climate appeasement wins out again, and the fossil fuel corporations will be popping the champagne corks.”