As the United Nations Climate Summit COP27 comes to a close this week in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh, the conference’s key aim of ensuring full adherence to the Paris Agreement is unlikely to be fulfilled. Since last year’s COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, “only 29 out of 194 countries [in the agreement] came forward with tightened national plans,” a UN press release stated.  

Yet, while most members are making some efforts to cap climate change, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states have focused on the need for a two-pronged approach to climate — focusing on both oil and green energy — amid rising energy demand following the war in Ukraine and the nations’ reliance on energy exports as a mainstay of their economics. 

Pointing out the impracticality of the climate goals laid out at last year’s summit, Sultan Al Jaber, chief executive officer of Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., said that the lack of sufficient investment in fossil fuels before alternatives were able to meet the world’s energy needs is “a recipe for disaster.” 

Having economies dependent on fossil fuel, the oil-rich Arab states face serious impediments in reaching a net-zero “green transition” without endangering their national interests.