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The UAE announced net zero carbon goals at the COP26 event<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Getty
The UAE announced net zero carbon goals at the COP26 event<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By Talek Harris \/ AFP
DUBAI
Petroleumworld 11 17 2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The United Arab Emirates accepts that oil is not its future despite being one of the world’s top exporters, a visiting delegation of US politicians told AFP on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The UAE’s leaders \u00abrecognise that their future is not going to be in oil\u00bb, Senator Ben Cardin said at the end of a trip that also included the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both the UAE and neighbouring Saudi Arabia, the number one oil exporter, announced net zero carbon goals in the build-up to the UN environmental meeting, which ends on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The targets were set despite plans to ramp up oil production. Net zero refers to emissions created within a country, not by products sold and consumed abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But UAE officials \u00abrecognise reality\u00bb, delegation member and House of Representatives Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said after talks with Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00abThey know the world is working very hard not to be in a position to buy their product anymore, because they’re going to alternative energy,\u00bb he said at the Dubai Expo world fair, which has sustainability as one of its major themes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00abSo I think they also want to make sure that they diversify at this point in time because they know their economy cannot be based long-term on a product that the world thinks is harmful to use.\u00bb<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hoyer said the UAE’s hosting of COP28 in 2023 shows it is committed to clean energy, and would provide an extra \u00abincentive\u00bb to move away from fossil fuels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00abThe crown prince (Sheikh Mohammed) made it very clear that yes, they were a country that was advantaged by fossil fuels, but that they believe that fossil fuels was yesterday and alternative energy will be the future,\u00bb he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cardin led a team that also included Senator Bob Casey and Representative Emanuel Cleaver. They also visited Israel before the UAE, their final stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The visit comes just over a year after the UAE broke with Arab consensus and normalised ties with Israel, with Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan following suit under a series of US-brokered agreements known as the Abraham Accords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The UAE and Bahrain are currently engaged in naval exercises with Israeli and US forces in the Red Sea, where Iran has been accused of carrying out attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00abWhat I think the Abraham Accords have done is take us to another level psychologically (in) the relationship between the Arab world and Israel,\u00bb Hoyer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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