LONDON (Middle East Eye) – Human rights activists have come together in London to protest against the decision to hold the Cop28 climate conference in the United Arab Emirates.
The event organized by ALQST, which monitors human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf Arab countries, took place outside the UAE’s embassy and was attended by activists from FairSquare, Amnesty International, PEN International and the MENA Solidarity Network.
“Having the world climate conference happen in a country that contributes majorly to the climate crisis is just a farce. It renders the event farcical,” Julia Legner, executive director of ALQST, told Middle East Eye.
There are concerns that the petrostate’s own economic interests will inhibit it from making any real progress in the fight against climate change.
In a speech given at the protest, James Lynch, founding co-director of FairSquare rights group, said: “The UAE autocracy is funded and fuelled by fossil fuels, so there is an inextricable link between fossil fuels and the autocracy of the UAE. The UAE will fight to keep fossil fuel on the agenda, to preserve its own power.”
In a widely criticized move, Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, the CEO of the UAE’s national oil company, Adnoc, has been appointed president of this year’s summit.
He has been outspoken about the need to phase out emissions from oil and gas production, but has not committed to phasing out the UAE’s production and use - something criticized by Amnesty International.
Experts at Climate Action Tracker, an independent scientific project, have concluded that the UAE’s plan for an increase in fossil fuel production and consumption is inconsistent with limiting global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the overarching goal of the 2016 Paris Agreement.
Monday’s protest not only focused on the UAE’s climate policies, but also its poor human rights record.
The event started by marking the two-year anniversary of Alaa al-Siddiq’s death in a road accident. She was ALQST’s former executive director and a prominent Emirati human rights defender.
Her father, Mohammed al-Siddiq, remains detained in the UAE despite his prison term having expired in April 2022. He was convicted as part of a 2013 trial dubbed the “UAE 94”, which saw 94 lawmakers, professors, activists and students who had petitioned for democratic reforms tried for plotting to overthrow the government.
The event then ended with the handing over of a petition to the embassy in support of prisoners of conscience still being held in the UAE.