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COP 28 President Sultan al-Jaber Praises Energy Leadership at World Government Summit in Dubai
COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber, who is also chief of the UAE’s oil and gas giant ADNOC, stated his positive outlook on the global energy sector in a Reuters report this week. Several energy leaders and business executives were attending the World Government Summit in Dubai where Sultan al-Jaber addressed the audience with words of praise for COP 28’s results.
According to the comments published by Reuters, the Sultan stayed true to his tough remarks on the ethusiasm for climate change action that directly blames the oil and gas industry for the world’s problems. Here’s what he said:
“History will remember that this was the first COP that agreed to transition away from fossil fuels…We need to show that an unprecedented agreement can be turned into unprecedented action. We are what we do, not what we say.”
Last year’s COP 28 in Dubai was definitely one for the headliner records. I initially covered the event and compiled the latest Highlights & Quotes from the COP28 Summit in Areas & Producers.
One of the most common findings from the media reporting on COP28 this year is that a coalition of green groups opposed to the presence of COP28 delegates in Dubai are all linked to coal, oil and gas production in the near-future. This includes a new analysis, as reported by BBC that 2,456 representatives reveal a significant increase in the amount of representatives with business interests in global oil, gas or coal projects.
And of course there was a big response to Al Gore’s comments by Emirati oil executive Sultan Al Jaber, who clearly came out against the climate science, known as the “alarmist” scenario:
“There is no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says the phaseout of fossil fuel is what’s going to achieve 1.5.”
This dialogue about the climate change scenarios from the impact of global warming got even more heated after Gore’s speech, including a somewhat crude exchange between the Sultan and former UN special envoy for climate change Mary Robinson who were discussing the issues on a panel.
Read more about the geopolitical trends and global energy markets in the publication Areas & Producers.
Global Mining Leader Inks New African Initiative Through the Guinea-Liberia Liberty Corridor
In the span of nearly six weeks there have been two critical initiatives for the global mining sector in Africa, with Ivanhoe Mines CEO and Chairman Robert Friedland at the forefront of these developments.
In a report from Reuters it was stated that a US-based company founded by Friedland, High Power Exploration Inc (HPX), initiated a letter of intent between the African countries of Guinea and Liberia with South Africa’s Guma Africa Group to carry out a series of infrastructure development projects through what is known as the Liberty Corridor.
The rollout of these rail and road development projects are intended to allow for greater interconnectivity between the two countries for raw materials supplies and commodities exports. Although the Liberty Corridor is still in preliminary negotiations between all of the players and country leaders involved in the projects, the findings suggest that investments in this corridor are for the purpose of upgrading roads, expanding renewable energy capacity and building high-speed telecom infrastructure.
But it’s also to ensure that export-bound minerals from Liberia and Guinea reach ports more efficiently in the future.
For instance, this is already the second initiative announced this year, and the second one is called the Lobito Corridor. Both of these initiatives seek to ensure the efficient transportation and export of critical raw materials for global markets.
Robert Friedland’s Ivanhoe Mines announed its first copper shipment from the Demorcratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to the maritime port in Angola via a new railway from the DRC to Angola, which is linked up by the Lobito Corridor, on 3 Janurary 2024.
The global mining industry is particularly focused on the politics and economics of African countries. Zambia and DRC are two of the world’s largest producers of copper. What this new DRC-Angola railway intends to do is show the world how important the strategic minerals of Africa have become to the global markets. For the DRC and Angola to come to such an agreement, as establishing a vital railway link between the two countries from mine to port, just goes to show how mining projects are changing the dynamics of politics in the Sub-Saharan Africa region.
Read more about the geopolitical trends and latest mining news in the publication Areas & Producers.
