The ecological laundering of the president of the Emirates Climate Summit: they accuse Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber of changing his profile on Wikipedia

COP28 President Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber has been accused of 'greenwashing' for using members of his team to edit his Wikipedia profile, The Guardian reports. The revelations come a week after 130 European and North American politicians denounced in a letter the “incompatibility” of Al-Jaber as president of the climate summit to be held in November in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and his role as director Adnoc executive, one of the largest oil companies in the world.

The UAE controls 6% of world reserves and is currently the third country with the largest oil prospections in its portfolio, after Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Since assuming the presidency of COP28, Al-Jaber has stressed the need to “put less emphasis on reducing emissions and more on the rise of zero carbon alternatives.”

According to The Guardian, Sultan Al-Jaber's team suggested deletion in his Wikipedia biography of his more than €3.7 billion deal with Black Rock and KKR for the construction of an oil pipeline.. The portal's volunteer administrator was also asked to remove a quote from the Financial Times that touched on the “dissonance” between his roles as COP28 president and CEO of Adnoc, as well as the United Arab Emirates' plans to ramp up its production of three to five million barrels of oil per day between 2016 and 2030.

The British newspaper has identified the sultan's marketing chief, Ramzi Haddad, as primarily responsible for “greenwashing”, using the pseudonym Junktuner and inserting a laudatory quote from a Bloomberg editorial: “Al-Jaber is the kind of ally that needs the movement of the weather”.

Wikipedia included on its May 30 page the greenwashing allegations contained in the Guardian article. The page maintains a quote from Amnesty International expressing its concern that Adnoc and other oil companies may hijack COP28 “to serve their own interests.”

Christiana Figueres, architect of the Paris agreement, was one of the first to denounce the maneuvers of Sultan Al-Jaber before COP28 as “very dangerous”. “He's trying to dance on two tracks at the same time,” Figueres said.. “He is saying that fossil fuels will be used for the foreseeable future and that they will be responsible for emissions with carbon capture systems that are not yet proven.. That approach, and that attempt to sideline emissions, is going to create a lot of problems among vulnerable countries.”

“Oil companies are taking 'greenwashing' to a new level,” said Caroline Lucas, a British Green Party MP.. “His goal now is to seize control of the climate conferences and get his employees to remove criticism of his searing hypocrisy from Wikipedia pages.”

In the letter signed last week, more than 130 European and North American deputies warn that “climate negotiations will be subverted” if COP28 is finally chaired by the director of one of the world's largest oil companies. The signatories ask the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, to intervene directly and to take advantage of the next preparatory session in Bonn to “adopt concrete rules that limit the influence of the fossil fuel industry in the process.”

COP27 in Egypt registered the highest number of oil and gas lobbyists (636) of any climate summit (including several representatives of Russian companies).. Curiously, the UN also presented in Sharm el Sheikh the report on the red lines against 'greenwashing' in the commitments of 'zero emissions' by companies, cities, regions and financial institutions.