The United Arab Emirates will launch its presidency of global climate talks on Thursday, with the head of its national oil company likely to be given the leading role.

Sultan Al Jaber has served as climate envoy to the country, and is chief of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), the world’s twelfth-largest oil company by production, and is hotly tipped to take on the pivotal role of president of the talks.

He is also minister of industry and advanced technology for UAE, and head of the Masdar company, which focuses on renewable energy.

The Cop28 UN climate summit, which will take place from 30 November in Dubai, will be a crucial conference, determining whether the world can get on track to tackle the climate crisis. This year, nations must conduct a “global stocktake” assessing the current state of climate action and progress on fulfilling the goals of the 2015 Paris agreement...

One of the roles of the presidency will be to hold such recalcitrant governments to account, but many observers fear that UAE, as a major oil producer and with close ties to other producers such as Saudi Arabia, will be reluctant to take them on...

Some civil society activists have called for Al Jaber to give up his fossil fuel roles to take on the Cop28 presidency.