DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) 鈥 Don鈥檛 trust the oil and gas industry to report their actual carbon pollution, said former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who added that the man leading the United Nations climate talks runs one of the 鈥渄irtiest鈥 oil companies out there.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e much better at capturing politicians than they are at capturing emissions,鈥 Gore told The Associated Press in a sit-down interview.
The Nobel Prize-winning climate activist, author and filmmaker blasted Sultan al-Jaber, the president of the United Nations climate talks, who is also president of the national oil company of the host nation, United Arab Emirates. Gore said al-Jaber鈥檚 Abu Dhabi 好色tv Oil Co. is 鈥渙ne of the largest and one of the dirtiest, by many measures, oil companies in the world.鈥
Gore can make these claims because he just released a massive update of the Climate TRACE that he helped create. It tracks carbon pollution from every nation and city across the globe with 352 million pieces of information.
Looking at the data released Sunday, Gore said, 鈥渢he No. 1 surprise was how far off the reporting from the oil and gas industry is. And we see it here in the United Arab Emirates, you know, nice folks. But the numbers they put out are just not right. And we can prove they鈥檙e not right.鈥
In a one-hour data-heavy presentation at the U.N. conference, Gore said: 鈥淭he Abu Dhabi 好色tv Oil Company still claims to have no emissions from methane or anything else from the transport of oil and gas. Well, actually, they do. We can see them from space.鈥
鈥淲hy can we see the leakage from space if there are no leakages? Well, these were self-reported emissions,鈥 Gore said. Then showing his data: 鈥淎nd this is the actual emissions. And these are the emissions last year here.鈥
In his interview, Gore repeatedly took aim at al-Jaber being picked by the UAE to chair the climate conference. As summit host, the local government chooses the president of the talks.
鈥淗e鈥檚 a nice guy. He鈥檚 a smart guy. I鈥檝e known him for years. But he has a direct conflict of interest,鈥 Gore said. 鈥淎nd this isn鈥檛 some kind of nitpicking complaint. This goes to the heart of whether or not the world is going to have the ability to make intelligent decisions about humanity鈥檚 future.鈥
Gore said 鈥渉is main job is the head of the oil company. And honestly, when I look at the massive expansion plan that they have to increase their production of oil, 50%, increase their production of gas鈥 when the climate conference ends, he asked, 鈥渄o you take us for his fools?"
In a , al-Jaber defended his record and the idea of bringing oil companies into the efforts to curb climate change.
鈥淭hey鈥檝e stepped up,鈥 al-Jaber said of oil industry colleagues. 鈥淚s it enough? No.鈥
In previous comments, al-Jaber's colleagues have dismissed media coverage detailing ADNOC's expansion plans. The company in to expand to 5 million barrels per day.
Al-Jaber made a splash in the beginning of the summit with from gas production and pipelines. But the problem is that it鈥檚 voluntary, and when industry in general is asked to report its own emissions they underestimate it by about a third, and most of the worst methane emitters weren鈥檛 part of the deal, Gore said.
鈥淚 want to recall for you that two years ago there was the global methane pledge to reduce methane emissions by 30% by 2030. Well, what鈥檚 happened? Well, since that pledge was made. Methane emissions have increased almost 2%,鈥 Gore said in his public presentation.
鈥淭he final problem I have with (the pledge) is that the main issue is phasing out oil and gas production,鈥 Gore said in the interview. 鈥淎nd they don鈥檛 do that. And whenever I see a bright, shiny object held up in front of the public and they say 鈥榣ook at this, don鈥檛 look at the actual emissions from oil and gas, look at the bright, shiny object鈥 then I think, you know, come on, we鈥檝e been down this road before and it鈥檚 way too late to take us for fools.鈥
鈥淟et鈥檚 get on with it. The climate crisis is a fossil fuel crisis, and we can solve the climate crisis, stop the temperatures going up, start the healing process by phasing out oil and gas,鈥 Gore said. 鈥淎nd I know they don鈥檛 want to do it. And I know that it鈥檚 really tough. I mean, look, 80% of the energy we use in our global economy is from fossil fuels.鈥
The former vice president said he hopes he's wrong about al-Jaber and that maybe he can deliver more than others have in the past. But he's not betting on it.
And because world leaders can't even agree where next year's climate talks will be or who will run them, Gore said he has great hope for 2025. That's because it will be in Brazil and run by leftist president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who Gore said 鈥渋s raring to go.鈥
Gore, who says that he is generally is an optimist, said between climate disasters and public pressure, the world is near a 鈥減olitical tipping point.鈥 Climate scientists often use the term 鈥渢ipping point鈥 for when ecological systems like Arctic sea ice or coral reefs hit a point-of-no-return change.
Gore sees a political version of that approaching.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 have time to be depressed about it,鈥 Gore said. 鈥淵ou just got to keep fighting. We鈥檒l get there. The question is whether we get there in time, but I think we鈥檒l get there.鈥
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