Oil, gas to remain main energy source until 2045: OPEC Sec-Gen

Oil and gas will "remain the main source of energy until 2045," said Mohammed Barkindo, the Secretary-General of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) as he reflects on COP26.

The comment came during an interview with Dubai Eye 103.8’s Business Breakfast at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC).

The Secretary-General was queried about OPEC’s role in supporting the global energy transition, to which the official recalled the events that transpired during and after the Paris Climate Accords.

The UAE was the first country in the region to sign and ratify the Paris Agreement and the first in the region to set an economy-wide reduction in emissions by 2030.

Ahead of COP26 in Glasgow, Dr. Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber, the UAE’s Special Envoy for Climate Change and Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, met his counterparts in London to discuss a clean future.   

In line with the UAE’s firm stance on phasing down carbon-based energy sources, Barkindo was queried on his thoughts about the success of COP26.

“I would certainly not characterise COP26 in Glasgow as a failure,” he said, conscious of the fact that many of the participating countries were not satisfied with the end result.

Disagreeableness on the outcome multiplied when many developed countries when the United States, the European Union and some other nations, failed to secure the establishment of a dedicated new damages fund that vulnerable nations pushed for earlier in the summit.

However, with COP28 set to be hosted in the UAE, Barkindo looks at the upcoming event as a “silver lining”; an opportunity to rectify or amend the “shortcomings” that occurred at COP26.