Energy News Beat

MIDLAND, Mich. — Bills passed by the Michigan Senate last night will drastically increase Michigan’s energy costs and harm energy reliability. The Senate passed SB 271, SB 273 and SB 502, which would require the state to use 100% clean energy by 2040.

Below is a statement from Jason Hayes, director of energy and environmental policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

“While recognizing the need for energy sources like nuclear and natural gas is progress, these bills would still have drastic consequences. There’s no doubt that people would quickly experience increased costs and widespread grid instability as a result of a wind, solar, and battery backup-based electric grid.

Michigan ratepayers should know that it’s impossible to achieve net-zero goals on the cheap. Even these amended bills will continue to impose substantial costs on the average Michigan family while achieving little to nothing to actually address the climate change issue politicians claim they want to solve. Estimates show that taking the state of Michigan to net-zero emissions by 2050 would only reduce global temperatures by approximately 1/1000th of a degree Celsius by the year 2100. Meanwhile, people can expect pay an additional $2,746 in energy costs each year just to experience more blackouts.”

The Mackinac Center submitted testimony on the bills in June.

Source: Mackinac.org

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Rishi Sunak is facing fresh outrage from climate campaigners after it emerged that the prime minister, the King, and foreign secretary David Cameron are taking separate jets to the Cop28 conference in Dubai.

Downing Street confirmed all three of the leading British representatives at the crucial summit – aimed at cutting global emissions – will each get their own private plane.

No 10 defended the decision to have Mr Sunak and Lord Cameron travel separately – as it was confirmed junior ministers and officials would fly out on commercial flights rather than travel with the PM’s entourage.

The prime minister’s official spokesperson claimed that there was nothing wrong with so many flights since the government is “not anti-flying” and is pushing new sustainable fuels.

But opposition parties and activists accused Mr Sunak of climate hypocrisy – criticising the use of separate jets as “setting an awful example” and being a “waste of taxpayers’ cash”.

Mr Sunak’s spokesperson said: “We are not anti-flying. We do not seek to restrict the public from doing so and it’s important the UK has strong attendance at Cop28, given we continue to be a world leader in tackling climate change.”

The No 10 official added: “This government’s approach to tackling climate change, as we have set out repeatedly, is not about banning or reducing people from flying. It is through investing in new technologies of the future, as evidenced by the flight just yesterday using sustainable aviation fuel.”

The Liberal Democrats’ climate spokesperson Wera Hobhouse said the use of separate private jets “is not just a waste of taxpayers’ cash, it sends all the wrong signals about the UK’s climate commitments”.

She added: “The UK should be playing a leading role at Cop28 … instead, this government is slashing net zero targets at home while taking polluting private flights abroad.”

Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer said Mr Sunak and Lord Cameron were members of a “super-rich elite who are super-heating the planet”. She added: “A short trip on a private jet will produce more carbon than the average person emits all year.”

Todd Smith, an Extinction Rebellion (XR) spokesperson, said Mr Sunak and Lord Cameron were “setting an awful example” and “protecting the interests of their rich mates”.

The activist said three in four Britons would not need to change their flying habits to achieve net zero. “It is only a small minority of private jet users, frequent flyers and first-class travellers that are ruining it for the rest of us.”

Helena Bennett, head of climate policy at the think tank Green Alliance, said it was “not a good look” for ministers to travel on separate flights. “To discourage this, and pay for the environmental damage they cause, we should levy a new tax on the fuel private jets use.”

Green Party MP Caroline Lucas said the “excessive climate-wrecking private flights amount to pumping jet fumes in the face of those on the frontline of this crisis”. She also backed a new levy on private jets to “make them think twice before hopping on the next one”.

Ed Matthew of the E3G campaign group said ministers should be banned from travelling on private jets. “This is not just about saving emissions. It is about leading by example.”

Doug Parr, Greenpeace UK’s chief scientist, added: “It’s important for our leaders to show respect for the amount of carbon dioxide they emit. Is it really beyond the capability of them and their offices to ensure that they fly by chartered or even just coordinate their own efforts?”

No 10 also insisted that Mr Sunak’s plane will use 30 per cent sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and that carbon offsetting will be used to minimise its impact. It is understood that SAF is also being used for the King’s flight to Dubai.

Downing Street also pointed out that the foreign secretary would be travelling on to Dubai from a two-day summit with EU and Nato leaders.

Mr Sunak has come in for repeated criticism for his frequent use of taxpayer-funded jets and helicopters for his trips around Britain.

Labour mocked the Tory leader’s “breathtaking lack of self-awareness” after he posted a photo of himself in a private jet to highlight his move to scrap HS2’s northern leg. It emerged in the autumn that the PM had taken a private flight for travel in the UK once every eight days since entering No 10.

It is not clear whether Mr Sunak or Lord Cameron will be using “Cam Force One” – the former RAF jet given a refit when the foreign secretary was still prime minister. Almost £1m was spent painting it red, white and blue at Boris Johnson’s behest in 2020.

A smaller private jet also leased by the government for ministers or members of the royal family was given a similar patriotic makeover.

The first transatlantic flight powered by sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) – operated by Virgin Atlantic – flew from London Heathrow to New York’s JFK airport on Tuesday.

The transport secretary, Mark Harper, who was on board, said it “shows how we can decarbonise transport” while Mr Sunak said it was “a major milestone” towards “decarbonising our skies”.

However, campaigners accused the government of making misleading claims. Cait Hewitt, policy director of the Aviation Environment Federation, said: “The idea that this flight somehow gets us closer to guilt-free flying is a joke.”

The industry has argued that “lifecycle emissions” of SAFs can be up to 70 per cent lower than traditional aviation fuels. But SAFs currently account for less than 0.1 per cent of the fuel consumed on global flights.

Jets used by the super-rich are up to 14 times more polluting than commercial planes per passenger, and 50 times more polluting than trains, according to a study by the Transport & Environment campaign group.

Ahead of the Cop28 summit, Mr Sunak said protection of nature was “at the centre” of Tory “action to tackle climate change”. It came as the government announced plans for a new national park for England, as well as greater protections for trees and urban wildlife havens.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer will also attend the Cop28 summit in Dubai. He is expected to stay longer than Mr Sunak, hoping to “bang the drum for Britain” and push his green jobs plan.

Source: Independent.co.uk

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U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry announced Monday he will unveil a first of its kind global strategy to commercialize nuclear fusion energy at an upcoming United Nations summit in Dubai.

“Fusion energy is no longer just a science experiment,” Kerry said during a visit to the Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) corporate headquarters in Devens, Massachusetts, near Boston, previewing the plan. “Benefitting from decades of investment from the Department of Energy’s world-leading Fusion Energy Sciences programs, it is now also an emerging climate solution.”

“I will have much more to say on the United States’ vision for international partnerships for an inclusive fusion energy future at COP28, during an event on December 5,” Kerry added, according to a readout of his remarks. CFS, a spin-out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is working to bring fusion power plants to market.

The 28th UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) will be held from Nov. 30 to Dec. 12 at Expo City Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry speaks in conversation with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff during the APEC CEO Summit at Moscone West on Nov. 16, 2023, in San Francisco.

Two sources tipped off Reuters before Kerry’s announcement Monday. They told the outlet the former Secretary of State’s plan foresees strengthened cooperation with other countries and serves as the first international strategy aiming to speed commercialization of nuclear fusion.

As a U.S. senator more than a decade ago, Kerry supported legislation that funded research at MIT seeking to replicate fusion, or the process that powers the sun and stars, to generate electricity on Earth. The process aims to use lasers or magnets to smash two light atoms into a denser one, releasing large amounts of energy.

If done successfully, fusion could have an important advantage over nuclear fission plants that split atoms, as it does not produce long-lasting radioactive waste, and could also provide a cheap source of carbon-free electricity, according to Reuters.

A man looks at a module being assembled at the international nuclear fusion project Iter in Saint-Paul-les-Durance, southern France, on Jan. 5, 2023.

Due to economic uncertainty and inflation, investments in the clean energy industry have stalled this year.

The Fusion Industry Association (FIA) tracked international fusion companies as having garnered about $1.4 billion in investments for a total of about $6.21 billion in mostly private funding in 2023. That is a decline from the $2.83 billion in new investment recorded in 2022.

UN Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions Michael Bloomberg announced from The Plaza Hotel in New York City on Sept. 19, 2021 that the COP28 Local Climate Action Summit will take place in Dubai in December.

While some skeptics fear fusion will be too expensive and take too long to develop to adequately address climate change, this year’s COP28 is viewed as an opportunity to court support from global partners to plan international deployment of the technology.

From 2022 to 2023, FIA said the number of companies receiving investments in global fusion jumped from 33 to 43. Commonwealth Fusion Systems is one of about 25 of those companies in the United States, while other nations investing in fusion technology include Australia, China, Germany, Japan and the U.K.

Kerry toured the Boston-area company with CFS CEO Bob Mumgaard and Claudio Descalzi, CEO of Italian energy company Eni.

Source: Foxnews.com

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Greek shipping giant Angelicoussis has secured long-term charters for almost all of the newbuild LNG carriers it has ordered in South Korea while the group also evaluates further opportunities to expand its large LNG fleet, according to CEO, Maria Angelicoussis, and deputy CEO, Sveinung Stohle.

Maria Angelicoussis and Sveinung Stohle told this to LNG Prime on Wednesday at the sidelines of DMG’s 23rd World LNG Summit & Awards currently taking place in Athens.

Stohle joined Angelicoussis from Hoegh LNG back in 2021 after 15 years at the helm of the Norwegian FSRU player.

Maran Gas, a unit of Angelicoussis, currently has 45 LNG carriers in operation.

Stohle said that the group currently has 12 LNG carriers on order in South Korea and the company will take delivery of these vessels from 2024 to 2027.

The firm ordered in total 11 LNG carriers at South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering, now Hanwha Ocean, since November 2021.

This also includes the two LNG carriers it ordered at Hanwha Ocean in March this year.

Besides LNG carriers, Maran Tankers Management, the oil tanker unit of Angelicoussis, ordered 8 LNG-powered Suezmax tankers from China’s New Times.

Stohle said that Angelicoussis secured long-term charters for all of the newbuild LNG carriers except the last two vessels delivering in 2027.

Asked about fleet expansion, Stohle said that the decision to book more LNG carriers “depends on the market.”

“We follow the market every day and we will see whether we will place orders for new vessels,” he said.

According to Stohle, there are currently about 630 large LNG carriers on the water around the globe and about three hundred vessels have been ordered at yards in South Korea and China.

He expects that the global fleet of large LNG carriers would probably reach 1000 vessels by the end of this decade.

Maria Angelicoussis said later on Wednesday during a panel on LNG shipping that the group prefers Korean yards to order LNG newbuilds “but we understand capacity constraints in Korea.”

“We were in China last month, and had a tour of the shipbuilding yards, especially these new yards that are building up their LNG capacity,” she said.

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With hours left of the agreed pause in Gaza fighting, Israel, Hamas and the intermediaries negotiating between them were on Wednesday again in a frenzy of activity.

The original truce was to have lasted until Monday, but Hamas decided to accept the Israeli offer to extend the ceasefire by a day for each group of 10 captives released. As the original deadline loomed an extension was proclaimed, but of just two days.

Two is still better than nothing, and the two extra days bought the Qatari and Egyptian mediators extra time to work out how to convince both sides to prolong the truce even further or turn it into a permanent ceasefire.

It has not been easy. While negotiations through intermediaries have been difficult, long and often tedious, they did finally produce some results and an agreement in principle that led to the initial four-day truce and indirectly to the two-day extension. During initial negotiations, Israel unilaterally declared that the pause could be made longer by the release of additional captives, so not much had to be additionally negotiated. Yet, as more time passed, talks through Qatari and Egyptian intermediaries seemed to be dragging, and lists of detainees to be released kept being agreed upon and accepted later and later each day; at one point Hamas even threatened to stop the process and let the truce collapse.

Now, on Wednesday evening, the situation appears to be more complicated than ever. Hamas announced that it is seeking a further four-day extension, and even hinted at being ready to negotiate the release of all captives it is holding, in exchange for a more lasting cessation of hostilities. At the same time, Israel said it welcomes the possible release of additional captives, but sent mixed messages about the continuation of the pause.

In such an atmosphere of uncertainty mixed with anxiety and hope, international mediators are trying harder than ever. For the past two days, they have been joined in Qatar by the highest officials from the US, Israeli and Egyptian intelligence services.

No announcement has been made of the presence of their Hamas counterparts, but it is very hard to imagine that the Palestinian side would not be represented in such an intelligence summit.

One would expect that, with the experience of two rounds of negotiations, it would be easier to reach agreements on the continuation and expansion of the deals. Yet, there are many signs to suggest that the situation is getting more complicated with talks possibly getting bogged down.

How is it possible that from overwhelming optimism that marked the weekend mass celebrations of former captives rejoining their communities, the talks are now on the verge of failure with the real prospect of fighting resuming on Thursday?

There are several reasons for the apparent reluctance of both Israel and Hamas to prolong the truce by exchanging more captives.

First, tactical and strategic military reasons, mostly on the Israeli side. Over the past few days, several representatives of the Israeli military indicated that they would prefer the current two-day extension of the pause to be the last. Generals told the political leadership that the military believes that fighting should be resumed on Thursday morning.

From the very beginning of the armed intervention, the Israeli army was wary of having to go to war without clearly defined strategic goals. I warned that soldiers detest “open-ended” tasks. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated several times that his goal was to win the war by destroying Hamas, but he obviously never translated that into clear and measurable orders and tasks. Generals prefer to be told: “Go there and do that, if and when you achieve it your job is done”. Their eagerness to resume fighting is by no means an indication that they are bloodthirsty; on the contrary, it tells those who want to listen that they are realists.

Following the 7 October attacks, the Israeli military mobilised 360,000 reservists, deploying them alongside the standing army of 150,000 soldiers. While the fighting went on, each reservist and each unit, whether in Gaza or along the northern front facing Hezbollah, knew exactly what his or her task and purpose was. They were focused, in a military mindset, not overtly influenced by the atmosphere among civilians.

But as they stopped for four days, then for two more, many went home for short rest and were exposed to the doubts, uncertainties, fears and hopes of their families and relatives. For a couple of days, they lived almost as civilians, but, as the original pause was to expire on Monday, they would have had to return to units by Sunday afternoon – the time when the extension was announced. Military bureaucracy then had to decide whether to give them an extra day or two at home or rotate soldiers, with the eventual new group being granted just two days off and so on.

Another extension would further complicate the logistics of leave and rotation, but prolonged semi-civilian life could also damage the determination to fight.

After October 7, Israeli national adrenaline ran high and everyone was ready to fight. Now, seeing that the country’s politics is a mess; the leadership is in poorly hidden disarray and the prime minister is clearly troubled, shaken and insincere, soldiers may start to vacillate.

Aware of potential problems with morale and determination, generals obviously prefer to get the fighting over with, rather than endure more of the stop-go-stop-go orders that in all wars prove detrimental to the fighting capabilities of an army.

Mediators are locked in hectic parleys to extend the pause in fighting, but it’s becoming harder for Israel to agree.

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French LNG containment giant GTT is expecting that there will be more than 450 orders for large LNG carriers over the next ten years, GTT’s chief Philippe Berterottière told LNG Prime on Thursday.

Earlier this year, Berterottière said that GTT was expecting up to 450 orders for large LNG carriers over the 2023-2032 period due to a strong LNG demand outlook and more stringent environmental regulations, which will force owners to replace older tonnage.

The CEO told LNG Prime at the sidelines of DMG’s 23rd World LNG Summit & Awards currently taking place in Athens the company is now expecting “higher figures” for LNG carrier orders.

Berterottière said that the company now expects more the 450 LNG carrier orders but GTT will give a precise update on the number of vessels in February 2024.

GTT received record 162 orders for LNG carriers and one FSRU in 2022.

The LNG carrier orders rose by 138 percent compared to the 68 orders in 2021.

During the first nine months of this year, GTT booked orders for 52 large LNG carriers, one FLNG, and 15 LNG-powered containerships.

“We are now at about 65 orders for LNG carriers up to date,” Berterottière said.

For the next year, GTT expects a “pretty good year” and not “far away from 70 LNG carriers”, he said.

Regarding LNG as fuel, Berterottière said that “companies are discovering that methanol will not be available any time soon and some companies are switching from methanol to LNG.”

“We expect more orders for LNG as fuel in 2024,” he said, adding that GTT is not just targeting containerships but also VLCCs and Suezmax tankers.

Asked about does he see any real competition for GTT in the LNG tank market in the future, he said “competition is existing, and there are many competitors in the market.”

“We are under constant pressure as other companies are trying to improve their solutions. In a certain way I would like to thank our competitors for that because it keeps us all the time awake, imaginative, and innovative,” he said.

“We will keep on improving our solutions and that is the only right thing to do,” he added.

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New Hampshire’s Department of Energy has requested a $70 million federal grant to expand community solar programs for low-income residents, an infusion of funds that supporters said could lower energy bills, accelerate decarbonization, and perhaps even catalyze the development of much-needed affordable housing.

“It’s just going to be life-changing for the communities we do this with,” said Jeannie Oliver, a senior director at the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, which partnered with the state on the proposal.

The request is part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Solar for All competitive grant program, created under the umbrella of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. The goal of the $7 billion program is to increase access to solar for people living in low-income and disadvantaged communities. Up to 60 grants will be awarded.

Community solar is a model in which energy consumers own a stake in or subscribe to a share of output from a solar development. They then receive credits for a portion of the power sold back to the grid, offsetting their utility bill. Community solar is often considered an option for consumers who can’t or don’t want to install solar on their own home, but who still want to participate in the environmental or financial benefits of renewable energy.

New Hampshire authorized community solar in 2013, but it hasn’t gotten much traction. In the state, larger, non-municipal solar projects are only credited for generation on projects up to 1 megawatt in capacity. At that size, however, the finances just don’t work for developers, said Sam Evans-Brown, executive director of the nonprofit Clean Energy New Hampshire. It’s not until an array reaches around 3 megawatts – with net metering – that the economics start to make sense.

Reaching lower-income residents with community solar is even trickier. There are no easily available lists of what households qualify as low or moderate income, so acquiring customers can be prohibitively difficult.

An influx of federal money could change that equation. The grant money would be used to expand the existing program and to create new ones targeting affordable housing and resident-owned manufactured housing communities. The proposal calls for funding to be split between the state energy department, the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, and New Hampshire Housing.

If the grant is awarded, these partnerships will be key to maximizing the impact the funds can have on low- and moderate-income residents, said Joshua Elliott, director of the division of policy and programs at the New Hampshire Department of Energy.

“It made sense to leverage existing relationships,” he said. “We thought meeting people where they are rather than having them come to us whenever possible would make for an attractive proposal.”

The portion of the money going to the state energy department would be used to expand the existing program for low-to-moderate-income community solar. The program will fund some of the project if a majority of the power generated benefits low-income households and up to 100% of a new development if at least 80% of the participating households qualify as low-income.

The state program has awarded $1 million each of the last two years. Last year, it funded four developments with a total of 61 households participating. More money could help both by funding more projects, and making it easier for potential developers to plan, Elliott said.

“Having additional funding available consistently helps these organizations as they are trying to sketch out a project and figure out if it works,” Elliott said.

The Community Loan Fund’s portion would be used to help resident-owned manufactured home communities build solar arrays to service residents. A resident-owned community is a manufactured home park in which the residents have come together as in a cooperative to buy the land on which their homes sit, creating for themselves a more stable housing future.

The community loan fund has been working on developing community solar with these groups since 2018 when it led the creation of an array in the western New Hampshire city of Lebanon. Today, they have four projects either in operation or under construction.

“The reason that has been slow is that the financial barriers to low income solar are pretty immense,” said Oliver, who leads the organization’s resident-owned communities program. “What the Solar for All program would do is really help us scale up.”

The remaining money would flow through New Hampshire Housing, a public corporation that promotes housing affordability and access throughout the state. It already works closely with the state’s 18 public housing authorities, so it has relationships and experience with the low-income population the funded programs would be targeting.

Much of the New Hampshire Housing money would be used to connect renters in multifamily buildings with community solar.

Traditionally, bringing solar to renters has been difficult because of what is often called the split incentive – if tenants pay their own electricity bills, landlords have little motivation to spend money on solar panels when the renters will reap the financial benefits. The grant proposal would encourage landlords to take over tenants’ utility bills, and roll the cost into the rent, reflecting the discounts community solar would create.

“The Solar for All proposal takes a huge step in moving things in a more positive direction,” Evans-Brown said. “It’s giving landlords a carrot to figure this out.”

The EPA should be announcing the grant recipients in March 2024 and distributing the funds in July, Evans-Brown said. Solar projects using the money should start popping up by 2025.

If New Hampshire receives the grant, it could be transformative, supporters said, by both accelerating the state’s decarbonization efforts and making a significant difference for financially struggling households. In concert with other federal programs pouring money into home electrification and energy efficiency, the Solar for All funds could jumpstart significant and much-needed growth in green housing development, Evans-Brown said.

“The thing I am excited about is this influx of money is going to result in a large amount of multifamily, sustainable housing getting built that’s going to be really affordable,” Evans-Brown said. “I am really optimistic.”

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LONDON – Oil prices rose on Wednesday as investors turned their attention to an OPEC+ meeting to decide on output policy, while supply disruption caused by a storm in the Black Sea combined with lower U.S. inventories to drive buying.

Brent crude futures were up 61 cents, or 0.8%, to $82.29 a barrel at 1447 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures gained 75 cents, or 1%, at $77.16 a barrel.

Both benchmarks rose about 2% on Tuesday as the market anticipated that OPEC+, made up of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies such as Russia, would extend or deepen supply cuts.

OPEC+ on Wednesday continued talks, which sources had described as difficult. A meeting to decide on next year’s output policy on Thursday was, however, expected to go ahead on schedule, sources said on Wednesday.

“If they (OPEC+) fail to come to a preliminary deal, we cannot rule out the risk that the meeting is further delayed, which would likely put some downward pressure on oil prices,” ING analysts Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey said in a note to clients.

A severe storm in the Black Sea region has disrupted up to 2 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil exports from Kazakhstan and Russia, according to state officials and port agent data, raising the prospect of short-term supply tightness.

Kazakhstan’s largest oilfields are cutting combined daily oil output by 56% from Nov. 27, the Kazakh energy ministry said.

The oil market also found support from a drop in U.S. crude inventories, which fell by 817,000 barrels last week, according to market sources who cited American Petroleum Institute figures.

Eight analysts polled by Reuters estimated on average that crude inventories fell by about 900,000 barrels in the week to Nov. 24. Weekly U.S. government data on stockpiles is due on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, U.S. Commerce Department data showed the U.S. economy grew faster than initially thought in the third quarter, but momentum appears to have since waned as higher borrowing costs curb hiring and spending.

The data showed gross domestic product increased at a 5.2% annualised rate last quarter, revised up from the previously reported 4.9% pace, its fastest pace of expansion since the fourth quarter of 2021.

(Additional reporting by Yuka Obayashi in Tokyo and Muyu Xu in Singapore; Editing by Barbara Lewis and Paul Simao)

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COP28 President Sultan Al Jaber, who is also group CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), denied on Wednesday reports of plans to use the climate summit in Dubai for pushing oil deals.

Al Jaber’s presidency of COP28 has stirred controversy in recent months. He is the first CEO designated to be president of any climate summit so far. But he is also the chief executive of the national oil company of OPEC’s third-largest producer, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Earlier this week, the BBC and many other news outlets reported that the UAE planned to use its role as the host of climate talks to forge new oil and gas deals. The BBC cited leaked briefing documents obtained by independent journalists at the Centre for Climate Reporting working alongside the BBC. Those documents were purportedly prepared by the UAE’s COP28 team for meetings with at least 27 foreign governments during the climate summit which Dubai will host from November 30 to December 12.

COP28 UAE said on Wednesday “We are aware of a number of press releases purporting to be issued by COP28 and other entities, relating to the COP President’s leadership roles, which have been posted on some digital accounts and issued to members of the media.”

“This press release was not issued by the COP28 team, has no basis in truth, and must be entirely disregarded as fake news,” COP28 UAE added.

“As the COP President said in today’s press conference, “It is an attempt to undermine the work of the COP28 Presidency.”

Speaking at a press conference on the eve of the climate summit, Al Jaber told reporters, as carried by CNN,

“These allegations are false, not true, incorrect, and not accurate.”

“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,” said Jaber.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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