Because the world cannot simply unplug from the energy system as it is today, Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber, the UAE’s Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and the Group CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, ADNOC, believes the COP28 climate summit, scheduled for Abu Dhabi in 2023, should include input from experts and professionals from the oil and gas industry.

“We can’t simply unplug from the energy system of today and we can’t do this with a flip of a switch. We need to include the energy experts in the consultations and in the discussions and we need to make economic systems work more efficiently with much less carbon,” said Al Jaber, as quoted by the Emirates news agency WAM.

The UAE will host COP28 next year, following COP26 in the UK last November and the planned COP27 this year in Egypt.

The United Arab Emirates, which is currently OPEC’s third-largest oil producer after Saudi Arabia and Iraq, has set a goal to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, similar to most western nations. Simultaneously, the country aims to increase crude oil production capacity to 5 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2030, up from the current 4 million bpd.