Yesterday, we examined the UAE’s extensive greenwashing efforts ahead of COP28. Now, we’ll discuss the way that the UAE cynically appropriates social justice terminology and portrays the fossil fuel industry as a key part of the solution to the climate crisis.
Woke-washing: Disingenuous and Misleading Calls for Inclusivity, Unity, and Solidarity
UAE spokespeople and UAE-based media outlets frequently manufacture the false appearance of alignment with progressive values by co-opting social justice movements’ terminology — a disinformation technique known as woke-washing.
The UAE has repeatedly made references to inclusivity, calling COP28 “the most inclusive COP ever” and claiming that the summit will specifically uplift the voices of Indigenous people and women. Razan Al Mubarak, the managing director of the UAE government’s Environment Agency Abu Dhabi, has promoted the UAE’s efforts to support women’s leadership in climate diplomacy. “The COP28 presidency is mobilising for an inclusive COP,” she said last month. These steps to support women's leadership and participation get us closer to our goal and, I believe, will also have a positive impact on future rounds of the climate talks and on climate activism in general.”
It is true that women, Indigenous people, and other people of color have been excluded from past COPs. In practice, however, the UAE’s calls for inclusivity during this COP have often occurred in disturbing and self-serving contexts, such as when it tried to justify inviting war criminal Bashar Al Assad to COP28.
The UAE’s stated commitment to women’s leadership also rings hollow given the country’s poor record on women’s rights and other human rights. Marta Schaaf, director of the climate, economic and social justice, and corporate accountability program at Amnesty International, explained the problem with the UAE co-opting of the concept of inclusivity:
“The UAE has pledged to hold an inclusive COP, but this ambition will fall flat if it limits public debate to carefully scripted talking points. In fact, reports that its officials are trying to narrowly define the debate only heightens our concerns that the UAE has misjudged the urgency of the climate crisis and seeks to accommodate the interests of the fossil fuel industry, which writes off current and future human rights violations associated with fossil fuels as the ‘cost of doing business’. It is similarly hard to imagine an inclusive COP when the UAE’s draconian and ill-defined laws allow for the arrest of almost anyone expressing dissent, the suppression and continued detention of critics and political opponents, and the criminalization of same-sex relationships.”
COP president Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber has also advocated for the idea of unity leading up to COP28 and made appeals to the progressive value of solidarity. It is difficult to interpret his lofty statements outside of the context of the roiling controversy surrounding Al Jaber’s role as the head of COP28. It would certainly benefit Al Jaber if the people critiquing him would unite behind him and the petrostate he represents and stand in “solidarity” with the fossil fuel industry.
By trumpeting its supposed dedication to progressive values like inclusivity and solidarity while ignoring calls to address its poor human rights record, the UAE is both exploiting and eroding the ideals of social justice to protect its fossil fuel profits.
Fossil Fuel Solutionism: Framing the Fossil Fuel Industry as a Climate Action Partner
According to leading climate disinformation researchers, fossil fuel solutionism, or the idea that fossil fuels can somehow help address the climate crisis, is a key delay discourse that the fossil fuel industry uses to obstruct climate action. In tandem with its performative calls for inclusivity and unity, the UAE has heavily pushed this narrative, arguing in favor of fossil fuel industry involvement in negotiating climate solutions.
Al Jaber has contended that “not having oil and gas and high-emitting industries on the same table is not the right thing to do.” He has also argued that “we should allow for the least carbon-intensive fossil fuel to be part of the mix.” As the CEO of a major oil company, Al Jaber knows that harmful polluters can derail climate action much more effectively if they are allowed to participate in key negotiations. The industry that created, tried to hide, and continues to exacerbate the problem of climate change should absolutely not be given the power to decide how to address the climate crisis, and it is ludicrous and self-serving for Al Jaber to suggest otherwise.
Corporate executives—like the CEOs of BP and of the World Liquified Petroleum Gas Association, as well as the chief sustainability officer of General Electric, which has ties to the notoriously climate action-obstructing National Association of Manufacturers—have wholeheartedly supported Al Jaber. By rushing to the defense of the UAE, industry CEOs are amplifying the petrostate’s woke-washed talking points about inclusivity, and aggressively spreading the climate action delay narrative of fossil fuel solutionism. Fossil fuel interests had a huge presence at COP27, and the UAE’s COP28 will likely continue the trend of handing over power to scheming polluters whose only goal is to maximize their profits.
Next, we’ll examine the UAE’s usage of other forms of disinformation, such as whataboutism, the myth of individual responsibility for climate change, and straw man arguments.
In the meantime, remember that if the fossil fuel industry is at the table, then the climate's on the menu.