How the UAE's Hosting Will Shape This Year's U.N. Climate Summit

Recent controversies surrounding the United Arab Emirates' hosting of this year's U.N. climate conference will ultimately limit room for progress toward phasing out fossil fuels, even if COP28 negotiators make headway on climate finance and other issues that the Global South and the Emiratis are focused on. Emirati organizers for COP28 have recently been doing damage control in response to the backlash against having one of the world's largest oil producers host this year's U.N. climate summit, which starts in Dubai on Nov. 30. The controversy began in January, when the United Arab Emirates named Sultan al-Jaber, the chairman of the country's state-run Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), as the president-elect of the event. In May, while traveling across Europe to conjure up support for COP28, al-Jaber then drew further criticism after he stressed the need to phase out ''fossil fuel emissions'' instead of fossil fuels themselves -- a...