Electric Cars, SUVs, Buses Whisk COP28 Delegates Around Dubai
Aspiring to execute a climate-neutral event, COP28, the United Nations’ 2023 climate summit, opened today for two weeks at Expo City Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. To encourage sustainability, electric, hybrid, hydrogen, and biofuel-powered vehicles are transporting delegates to COP28 events around the sprawling 1,000+ acre campus.
More than 10,000 hybrid taxis, available through the free video chat and messaging Hala app, in addition to 1,000 electric luxury vehicles will be available, explain organizers of the event, formally known as the 28th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC.
Visitors and delegates to the COP28 venue, located between the cities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, are encouraged to use public transportation. The Dubai Metro serves the Expo 2020 Metro Station via the Metro Red Line that connects DXB Airport, the main hotels and tourist attractions in Dubai.
In addition, 10 electric buses plus 67 biofuel-powered buses will serve four stops within Expo City Dubai, as part of a comprehensive plan by Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) to help conference attendees to easily navigate the venue.
Within the overall fleet, Al-Futtaim Group, COP28’s Strategic E-Mobility Partner, is providing 360 electrified vehicles ranging from passenger cars and SUVs to buses, for use by the 70,000 delegates expected to attend.
One of the Middle East’s largest diversified business conglomerates and a major stakeholder in the region’s automotive sector, this is the first outing for Al-Futtaim’s strategic partnership with the RTA to support mega-events in the Emirates. The company also is running a full schedule of events in the COP28 Green Zone, an area where all visitors are welcome.
In addition, Al-Futtaim is introducing electric cars from manufacturers including Sweden’s Polestar, China’s BYD, and Volvo, now owned by Zhejiang Geely Holding of China. The latest hybrids from Toyota, Lexus and Honda will be on display. EV pioneers will share their experiences, including the heads of sustainability of Polestar and Volvo.
Paul Willis, president of Al-Futtaim Automotive, commented, “We have to take radical action to tackle the climate crisis, especially within the automotive sector, as surface transportation is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. We are well-aware of the huge responsibility that lies on our shoulders as automotive leaders, and how important it is for us to fundamentally initiate a shift towards greener automotive solutions to not only meet the climate change action goals but also to continue to meet the mobility needs of a rapidly increasing urban population.”
“IT’S OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO LOOK AT THE INDUSTRY HOLISTICALLY AND EXPLORE INNOVATIVE WAYS TO DEVELOP THIS ENTIRE NEW EV ECOSYSTEM, AS WELL AS PIONEER NEW MOBILITY SERVICES THAT WILL SUPPORT THE SUSTAINABLE TRANSITION.” – Paul Willis, President, Al-Futtaim Automotive
BMW has been named VIP E-Mobility Provider to COP28. “The COP28 UAE Presidency’s vision correlates with BMW’s commitment to technology orientation solutions and the Paris Climate Agreement. At COP28, the BMW Group will present solutions and discuss the requirements necessary to achieve the transformation to sustainable mobility,” Christian Bahoo, Global Head of Special Political Engagement, BMW Group, said in a statement.
During the event, the BMW Group will deploy a fleet including the BMW i7 electric sedan; the BMW iX, a mid-sized, all-electric SUV; and BMW iX5 Hydrogen exclusively for the transportation of VIP guests and officials.
First Oil CEO to Lead a Climate Summit Stirs Controversy
“Cruise is still just getting started, and I believe it has a great future ahead,” Vogt wrote. “The folks at Cruise are brilliant, driven, and resilient. They’re executing on a solid, multi-year roadmap and an exciting product vision. I’m thrilled to see what Cruise has next!”
The future role of petrol-powered vs electric vehicles is a central issue for COP28 attendees. Even with the COP28 Presidency’s planning for sustainability, COP28 President-designate Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, who also heads the state-run Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC), is facing dissension over his dual role.
On Tuesday, for instance, he had to deny a BBC report alleging that the Emirates planned to strike oil, gas and renewable energy deals with representatives of at least 15 governments at the annual climate summit.
“These allegations are false, not true, incorrect and not accurate,” Al Jaber told journalists assembled for a news conference that was aired live. “I promise you never ever did I see these talking points that they refer to or that I ever even used such talking points in my discussions.”
The UAE team responsible for hosting the conference answered the BBC report with the statement that “private meetings are private.” They declined to discuss the substance of the meetings except to say that the focus was on “meaningful climate action.”
Climate campaigners were not satisfied with Al Jaber’s statement, and expressed doubt that COP28 could be independent from ADNOC, as he heads both organizations.
Marta Schaaf, Amnesty International’s director of Climate, Economic and Social Justice, and Corporate Accountability program, said, “The escalating climate crisis is a very significant threat to people and their rights globally so the United Arab Emirates should be engaging in meaningful change to bring about a rapid end to the use of fossil fuels. Instead, the UAE’s priority at COP28 appears to be greenwashing its fossil fuel expansion plans and massaging its own reputation by seeking to avoid discussion of its dismal human rights record and continuing abuses.”
Serving as Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and the UAE’s Special Envoy for Climate Change, as well as President-designate, Al Jaber has been the public face of the UAE during the run-up to COP28.
“THE FUNDAMENTAL CHALLENGES OF THE ENERGY TRANSITION ARE: ONE: HOW TO ENSURE ECONOMIES MOVE FORWARD, WHILE PUTTING THE BRAKES ON EMISSIONS; TWO: HOW TO MAINTAIN ENERGY SECURITY AND CLIMATE PROGRESS AT THE SAME TIME; THREE: HOW TO MAKE SURE NO ONE GETS LEFT BEHIND. I BELIEVE WE CAN, WE MUST, AND IN FACT WE HAVE NO OTHER OPTION BUT TO SOLVE THESE CHALLENGES TOGETHER.” – Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, President-Designate COP28, UAE Special Envoy for Climate, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, CEO and Managing Director Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, Chairman of Masdar
Every year the country hosting the Conference of the Parties nominates someone to preside over the talks, usually an experienced diplomat. The president’s nomination is approved by COP delegates as the negotiations begin, usually just a formality. But this year, activists’ anger over Al Jaber’s dual position could get the talks off to a rough start.
Transport Front and Center Next Week
The COP28 spotlight swings to showcase transportation issues on December 5 and 6.
The intersection of sustainable transportation and renewable energy is center stage at a December 5 event organizers from the International Energy Agency call the “Transport-Energy Nexus to Deliver Climate Goals and a Just Transition.”
Emissions from transport account for 23 percent of all global CO2 emissions, which the COP28 Presidency says, “implies a rapid shift from fossil energy to electricity and low-emission fuels, which will have a significant impact on global energy demand and supply chains.”
According to the International Energy Agency’s latest Global EV Outlook, electric car sales set new records in 2022 and are expected to continue strong growth.
But transitioning to electric vehicles requires changes in the energy sector. Grid networks have to be upgraded to support deployment of renewable energy, energy storage devices, and electric vehicle charging infrastructure, all issues this session will address.
“Many solutions to address climate change sit at the nexus between the two, with many policy levers,” session organizers state. “It is essential that there is strong collaboration between these sectors to align policies and overcome shared challenges.”
While the transport sector has seen some strong representation in energy discussions, more can be done to bring transport and energy decision-makers to the same table to discuss actions. But meeting the targets for averting the worst of climate change will require monumental efforts by the transport sector.
COP28 Chief Executive Officer Adnan Z. Amin, told the Global Dialogue event in Abu Dhabi in October, “A sustainable transport sector is central to our shared success in keeping 1.5°C within reach. Transport would need an accelerated electrification and associated deployment of charging infrastructure in the coming decades. By 2050 electric vehicles would have to account for 80 percent of all road transport activity.”
Also on December 5, a session called “The Road to a sustainable future: From customers to business” explores the electrification transition from an industry and customer point of view.
First thing in the morning of December 6, Ministers of Housing, Urban Development, Environment Finance, and other portfolios will meet with local and regional leaders; financial institutions; non-government organizations; and other stakeholders. Their task is to articulate a suite of multi-level actions for sustainable urbanization across sectors that include: transport, buildings, waste, water, energy, and nature.
The ministers are expected to reinforce mechanisms for multi-level climate action to achieve the targets of the Paris Agreement. They are under public pressure to identify and strengthen ways to increase and accelerate financing for cities and local governments to cope with the climate crisis.
Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs, are countries’ self-defined national climate pledges under the Paris Agreement, detailing what they will do to help meet the global goal to pursue 1.5°C, adapt to climate impacts and ensure sufficient finance to support these efforts.
The ministerial meeting will showcase “frontrunner countries with strong urban content” in their self-defined national climate pledges under the Paris Agreement, as well as cities and other subnational climate actors “who have successfully localized net-zero and climate resilience plans,” explain organizers the COP28 Presidency and UN-Habitat.
The ministers’ recommendations will inform COP28 outcomes, and the meeting is expected to serve as a platform for national governments to announce commitments to multilevel climate action, including responding to the call to join the new Coalition for High Ambition Multilevel Partnerships (CHAMP) initiative launched by the COP28 Presidency and Bloomberg Philanthropies.
An interactive session focused on charging EVs called, “Charging Ahead: A Collective Vision on Charging Infrastructure to Accelerate the EV Transition,” will be featured on December 6. This workshop will explore a global collective vision to scaling charging infrastructure for all Zero Emission Vehicles including 2-3 wheelers, cars, vans, buses and trucks as empowered by the Breakthrough Agenda.
This event will showcase new policy solutions, tools and products to support ZEV infrastructure planning operations at different levels, including recommendations on what policies are needed and how to scale technical and financial assistance.
A showcase of best practices by countries working towards a smooth rollout of EV charging infrastructure for transport is on the agenda.
And how could anyone ignore the world of EV racing – Formula E?
December 6 offers a session called “Formula E’s race against climate change,” presented by Formula E, together with a Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) session called, “Shaping a Just Transition to a Net-Zero Road Transport Future.”
As the first major sport certified net zero carbon since inception, 10 years ago, Formula E’s session covers just how the all-electric motorsport championship has become a pioneer of motorsport technology and sustainability.
Acting as a sustainable R&D laboratory you’ll hear from its ecosystem experts on how their game-changing technology puts it in pole position in the race against climate change.
The FIA session will gather experts to demonstrate how low carbon technologies and a user-centric and evidence-based approach to policy-making can ensure a just transition towards a net-zero future for road transport.
Fossil Fuel Quarrels Divide Attendees
COP28 takes place as the world sets a record for the hottest year ever in 2023. A decision governments could make in Dubai is whether to agree, for the first time, to phase out global consumption of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas and replace them with renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and geothermal.
Many climate advocates and campaigners want the final outcome to support a fossil fuel phase out.
Ahead of COP28, 204 companies representing over US$1.5 trillion in global annual revenue urged national governments to address the primary cause of climate change: burning fossil fuels.
A letter to governments was coordinated by We Mean Business Coalition and its partners through the Fossil to Clean campaign.
The letter states, in part, “Our businesses are feeling the impacts and cost of increasing extreme weather events resulting from climate change. We recognize the need to transition in a way that safeguards our future collective prosperity on a livable planet. That means reducing our emissions, adopting clean solutions and reducing our use of fossil fuels to limit global heating in line with the Paris Agreement’s ultimate goal of 1.5°C.”
Developing countries have been trying for years to get agreement to a fossil fuel phase out from the annual UN climate talks. This week they received support as the European Union Parliament passed a resolution agreeing on a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty and calling for a “tangible phase-out of fossil fuels as soon as possible.”
“Fossil fuel emissions are responsible for over 80 percent of global emissions and the bloc’s current subsidy regime has been funding the sector to the tune of €55-58 billion per year, every year since 2008,” the European Parliament said.
The resolution, passed November 23, says phasing out fossil fuels is the only way to still meet the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. It calls for “halting all new investments in fossil fuel extraction,” and for the parties at COP28 to work on developing a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty to strengthen the transition to cleaner transportation.
With the hope that its resolution could help negotiators in Dubai focus on a phase out, the European Parliament said in a statement, “With world leaders such as the U.S. and China opposed to such an agreement, it will be interesting to see how the negotiations play out.”
James Henderson, a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies and an Honorary Professor at Warwick University, also believes that the United States and China are the keys to a climate-friendly future, he told the New York-based news outlet “Energy Intelligence” ahead of COP28 opening day.
“The key dynamic will center around the relationship between the U.S. and China,” Professor Henderson said. “If John Kerry and Xie Zhenhua, the leaders of their countries’ COP delegations, are given the authority by their respective presidents to conduct active negotiations, then the sight of the world’s two largest economies, and largest CO2 emitters, taking the climate negotiations seriously could well inspire others to action, as it did at COP26 and COP27.”
“The signs from the recent meeting between Presidents Biden and Xi in San Francisco appear relatively positive,” Henderson said, “but it will be critical that this is reflected in the discussions in Dubai if COP28 is to be a success.”
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