The United Arab Emirates planned to use its role as host of the United Nations climate talks as an opportunity to strike business deals for oil and gas, the BBC has learned.
Leaked briefing documents reveal plans to discuss fossil fuel deals with 15 countries.
The United Nations body in charge of the COP28 summit told the BBC that the host is expected to be impartial and not pursue his own interests.
The UAE team did not deny using the COP28 meetings for business negotiations, explaining that "private meetings are private".
He declined to comment on what was discussed at those meetings and added that his work is focused on "significant climate action."
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The documents, obtained by independent journalists from the Center for Climate Reporting working with the BBC, were compiled by a United Arab Emirates team for meetings with at least 27 foreign governments ahead of the COP28 summit, which starts on November 30.
They suggested "talking points," such as one for China that said Adnok, the United Arab Emirates' state oil company, was "willing to assess joint opportunities for international liquefied natural gas" in Mozambique, Canada and Australia.
The documents suggest telling the Colombian minister that Adnok is "ready" to support Colombia in developing its own fossil fuel resources.
There are also proposals for talking points for 13 other countries, including Germany and Egypt, which suggest that they be told that Adnoc wants to work with their governments to develop fossil fuel projects.
Briefings show that the United Arab Emirates has also prepared topics for discussion on commercial opportunities for its state-owned renewable energy company, ahead of a meeting with 20 countries, including the UK, the US, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Brazil, China, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Kenya.
COP28 is the latest round of United Nations global climate negotiations.
This year, the host is the United Arab Emirates in Dubai, and 167 world leaders are expected to attend, including the head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis and the British King Charles III.
These summits are the most important world meetings where it is discussed how to deal with climate change.
COP28 is expected to help limit the long-term increase in global temperatures to 1,5 degrees Celsius, which the United Nations climate body says is crucial to avoid the worst effects of climate change.
But that will require a drastic reduction in greenhouse gases, he says - a 43 percent reduction by 2030 from 2019 levels.
As part of the preparations for the conference, the United Arab Emirates team tasked with preparing COP28 has arranged a series of ministerial meetings with the governments of countries around the world.
The meetings should be chaired by the President of COP28, Dr. Sultan Al-Jaber.
Each year, the host country appoints a representative to be the president of the COP.
One of the main responsibilities of the president of the COP is meetings with representatives of foreign governments.
The president's job is to encourage countries to be as ambitious as possible in their efforts to reduce emissions.
The leaked briefing documents seen by the BBC were compiled for Dr Jaber - who is also the managing director of the United Arab Emirates' giant state-owned oil company Adnok and state-owned renewable energy company Masdar.
The documents contain summaries of the goals of those meetings, as well as information about the minister or official Dr. Jaber is scheduled to meet with and what issues he should raise in the United Arab Emirates' efforts to advance climate negotiations.
For more than twenty countries, the documents also contain discussion topics compiled by Adnok and Masdar:
- Brazil's environment minister was to be asked to help "secure agreement and support" for Adnoc's bid for Latin America's largest oil and gas refiner Braskem. Earlier this month, Adnoc offered $2,1 billion to buy a key stake in the company
- To Germany, Adnok was supposed to announce: "We are ready to continue our deliveries of liquefied natural gas."
- Adnok suggested that oil-producing countries such as Saudi Arabia and Venezuela should be told that "there is no conflict of interest between the sustainable development of any country's natural resources and its commitment to addressing climate change."
The BBC has seen an email in which COP28 staff were told that talking points originating from Adnok and Masdar "must always be included" in briefing notes.
The COP28 team said it was "simply untrue" that staff had been told this.
It is not known how many times Dr. Jaber and his colleagues have discussed topics at the COP28 meetings with foreign governments.
We know that, on at least one occasion, a country engaged in a commercial dispute initiated by a meeting arranged by the United Arab Emirates' COP28 team.
However, 12 countries told the BBC that there was either no discussion of commercial activities during the meetings or that the meetings did not take place at all.
Great Britain belongs to them.
Leaked documents show the COP28 president was instructed to "seek government support" for more than double the size of the Sheringham offshore wind farm in Norfolk in which Masdar has a stake.
Attempting business negotiations during the work process of the COP appears to be a serious violation of the standards of behavior expected of a COP president.
These standards are established by the UN body in charge of climate negotiations called the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The UNFCCC says a "key principle" for COP presidents and their teams is "obligatory impartiality".
The body told the BBC that COP presidents "are expected to act without partiality, prejudice, favouritism, whim, self-interest, preference or indulgence, strictly based on sound, independent and fair judgement."
"They are also expected to ensure that personal views and beliefs do not compromise or appear to compromise their role and functions as UNFCCC officials," it added.
Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, head of the COP20 summit in Peru in 2014, is concerned that a lack of trust could mean a lack of progress in the fight against climate change in Dubai.
"The president of the COP is the leader of the world, he is trying to secure a consensus on behalf of the whole planet," he told the BBC.
"If any president of the COP tries to realize some particular interest, which includes a commercial interest, it could mean the failure of the COP."
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Professor Michael Jacobs of the University of Sheffield, who is an expert on UN climate policy, told the BBC that the actions of the COP28 team seemed "staggeringly hypocritical".
"I think it's worse than that," he said, "because the United Arab Emirates is currently the guardian of a United Nations process aimed at reducing global emissions."
"And yet at those same meetings, which are ostensibly trying to achieve that goal, side deals are actually being made that will increase global emissions."
Several of the proposed projects mentioned in the briefing documents appear to be new oil and gas projects.
The International Energy Agency, a global watchdog, has said that in order to keep temperature rises to the 1,5 degree Celsius target, new oil and gas fields must not be opened.
At a press conference last month, COP28 director-general Majid Al Suwaidi said the UAE's climate summit team was "completely independent" of both Adnoc and Masdar.
COP28 was "very clear about our independence" in talks with the UNFCCC, he added.
In a statement, the COP28 team told the BBC: "The fact that Dr Sultan Al Jaber holds a number of positions in addition to the role of COP28 president is public knowledge and something we have been transparent about from the start.
"Dr. Sultan Al Jaber is uniquely focused on working with the COP and achieving ambitious and transformative climate outcomes at COP28," the statement said, adding that it would be a "distraction" to suggest that the results achieved so far were not "focused on significant climate change." action".
These are serious accusations, but in the end, the success of the leadership of the United Arab Emirates at the climate negotiations, as well as the COP28 president himself, will be judged by the results achieved at the summit itself, according to experts.
The COP28 summit lasts from November 30 to December 12.
Additional reporting: Adam Eley and Sophie Woodcock
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