Ireland 'not in secret negotiations with UAE' on oil and gas deals ahead of Cop28

A BBC report revealed that the president of Cop28, Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, has been planning secret deals to vastly expand oil and gas production at the event.

The report said the UAE was planning to speak with 27 foreign governments over possible oil and gas deals.

The UAE did not deny the report, saying that "private meetings are private".

Other than coming across him at a pre-Cop28 event, Minister Eamon Ryan has not met with Mr al-Jaber and Ireland has not discussed any such business dealings with the UAE, the Department of Environment confirmed.

Mr al-Jaber is head of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), the 12th largest oil-producing firm in the world, and has already come in for vociferous criticism from environmental groups for his ties to fossil fuel production.

Before her keynote speech at University College Cork's (UCC) sustainability forum, the former president, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Chair of The Elders global public figure group strongly criticised Mr al-Jaber.

Ms Robinson said: "It’s very worrying because perceptions matter, and there was already a perception that the presidency was compromised. This may make the situation even more difficult.

"It’s not right that the president of Cop would use the office for private deals. It’s not correct or appropriate."

The world has no time for a bad Cop, she warned.

A global stocktake of emissions will show a projected increase of 9% by 2030 instead of the targeted reduction of up to 45% — a "huge, huge gap", according to former Irish president Mary Robinson.

"We have to have as much progress at this Cop as possible because we are running out of time.

"It’s such an important Cop because of the (global) stocktake and we have to look at where we are. We are not at all where we should be. The stocktake will show that we will increase emissions by 9% between now and 2030 instead of reducing by 43% or 45%. That’s a huge, huge gap."

The global stocktake is when countries will review progress towards the Paris Agreement goals of 2015, including the goal of keeping global warming to well below 2C, while pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5C.

According to the Paris Agreement, a 1.5C rise in temperatures was set as the limit for the rise globally compared to 1850-1900, in order to stave off the very worst fallout from climate change.

Despite the deflation from environmental activists and scientists following the revelation that Mr al-Jaber was negotiating oil and gas expansion, Ms Robinson said that there is still hope, and called for people to galvanise to demand action.

She pointed to a sense of deflation as a special envoy as Cop21 in Paris began in 2015, before a deal was struck and the landmark Paris Accords were signed.

"We were nowhere in getting 1.5C in a goal in Paris when it started. It was a mixture of the movement on the street – and I hope there will be strong movement for phasing out of fossil fuels, there needs to be - and we got it through pressure," she said, referring to the upcoming Cop28 event which begins on Thursday.

The event will be attended by 167 world leaders, including Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, while Tánaiste Micheál Martin will also be present.