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Sultan Al Jaber, chief executive of the UAE’s Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and president of this year’s COP28 climate summit gestures during an interview as part of the 7th Ministerial on Climate Action (MoCA) in Brussels on July 13, 2023.

Francois Walschaerts | Afp | Getty Images

UAE oil giant ADNOC — run by the president of the COP28 climate conference — is expected to spend more than $1 billion every month this decade on fossil fuels, according to new analysis by international NGO Global Witness.

This is nearly seven times higher than its commitment to decarbonization projects over the same timeframe, the research says.

ADNOC, which recently became the first among its peers to bring forward its net-zero ambition to 2045, disputes Global Witness’ analysis and says the assumptions made are inaccurate.

It comes ahead of the COP28 climate summit, with Dubai set to host the U.N.’s annual conference from Nov. 30 through to Dec. 12. Viewed as one of the most significant climate conferences since 2015’s landmark Paris Agreement, COP28 will see global leaders gather to discuss how to progress in the fight against the climate crisis.

The person overseeing the talks, Sultan al-Jaber, is chief executive of ADNOC (the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company) — one of the world’s largest oil and gas firms. His position as both COP28 president and ADNOC CEO caused dismay among civil society groups and U.S. and EU lawmakers, although several government ministers have since defended his appointment.

Global Witness’ analysis, provided exclusively to CNBC, found that ADNOC is planning to spend an average of $1.14 billion a month on oil and gas production alone between now and 2030 — the same year in which the U.N. says the world must cut emissions by 45% to avoid global catastrophe.

It means that ADNOC is forecast to spend nearly seven times more on fossil fuels through to 2030 than it does on “low-carbon solution” projects.

By 2050, the year in which the U.N. says the entire world economy must achieve net-zero emissions, ADNOC is projected to have invested $387 billion in oil and gas. The burning of fossil fuels is the chief driver of the climate emergency.

A spokesperson at ADNOC told CNBC via email: “The analysis of, and assumptions made, regarding ADNOC’s capital expenditure program beyond the company’s current five-year business plan (2023 to 2027) are speculative and therefore incorrect.”

The Abu Dhabi energy group announced in January this year that it would allocate $15 billion for investment in “low-carbon solutions” by 2030, including investments in clean power, carbon capture and storage and electrification projects.

High-rise tower buildings along the central Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai on July 3, 2023.

Karim Sahib | Afp | Getty Images

Global Witness arrived at its projections by analyzing ADNOC’s forecasted oil and gas capital expenditure, exploratory capital expenditure and operational expenditure for the period from 2023 to 2050. The data was sourced from Rystad Energy’s UCube database.

Rystad’s data is not available to the public, but is widely used and referenced by major oil and gas companies and international bodies.

“Fossil fuels companies like to burnish their green credentials, yet they rarely say the quiet part out loud: that they continue to throw eyewatering amounts at the same old polluting oil and gas that is accelerating the climate crisis,” said Patrick Galey, senior investigator at Global Witness.

“How [al-Jaber] can expect to lecture other nations on the need to decarbonise and be taken seriously is anyone’s guess, while he continues to provide vastly more funding to oil and gas than to renewable alternatives,” he added.

“He is a fossil fuel boss, plain and simple, saying one thing while his company does the other,” Galey said.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the analysis conducted by Global Witness. The Conference of the Parties (COP) is the supreme decision-making body of the UNFCCC.

Main priority for COP28

Al-Jaber was the founding CEO of Abu Dhabi state-owned renewable energy firm Masdar, which works in more than 40 countries worldwide and has invested in or committed to invest in renewable energy projects with a total value of over $30 billion.

Speaking earlier this year, al-Jaber said the main priority for the COP28 summit will be to keep alive the fight to limit global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The Paris Agreement aims to limit the increase in the global average temperature to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Beyond the critical temperature threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius, it becomes more likely that small changes can trigger dramatic shifts in Earth’s entire life support system.

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company has brought forward its net-zero target by 5 years

The International Energy Agency says no new oil, gas or coal development is compatible with the goal of curbing global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

In response to a request for comment from CNBC, an ADNOC spokesperson said that energy demand is increasing as the world’s population is expanding. “All of the current energy transition scenarios, including by the IEA, show that some level of oil and gas will be needed into the future,” the spokesperson said.

“As such, it is important that, in addition to accelerating investments in renewables and lower carbon energy solutions, we consider the least carbon intensive sources of oil and gas and further reduce their intensity to enable a fair, equitable, orderly, and responsible energy transition. This is the approach ADNOC is taking,” they added.

The spokesperson said its 2022 upstream emissions data confirmed the energy group as one of the least carbon-intensive producers worldwide. The company will seek to further reduce its carbon intensity by 25% and target near zero methane emissions by 2030, they added.

“As we reduce our emissions, we are also ramping up investments in renewables and zero carbon energies like hydrogen for our customers,” the spokesperson said.

A separate report published in April last year by Global Witness and Oil Change International found that 20 of the world’s biggest oil and gas companies were projected to spend $932 billion by the end of the decade to develop new oil and gas fields.

At that time, Russian state company Gazprom was estimated to spend the most on fossil fuel development and exploration projects through to 2030 ($139 billion), followed by U.S. oil majors ExxonMobil ($84 billion) and Chevron ($67 billion).

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Renewable giants shrug off Trump’s anti-wind policies: ‘Electrification is absolutely unstoppable’

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Renewable giants shrug off Trump's anti-wind policies: 'Electrification is absolutely unstoppable'

U.S. President Donald Trump holds up an executive order after signing it during an indoor inauguration parade at Capital One Arena on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. Donald Trump takes office for his second term as the 47th president of the United States. 

Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Renewable energy giants appear relatively sanguine about U.S. President Donald Trump‘s anti-wind policies, describing the process of replacing fossil fuels with electrically powered products as “absolutely unstoppable.”

Trump, who promised a new “golden age” for America in his inaugural address on Monday, swiftly took aim at low-carbon energy initiatives.

In a standalone executive order, which had been widely expected, the president temporarily suspended new or renewed leases for offshore and onshore wind projects and halted the leasing of wind power projects on the outer continental shelf.

“We are not going to do the wind thing. Big ugly windmills, they ruin your neighborhood,” Trump told his supporters at the Capital One Area in Washington on Monday. He previously described wind turbines as an economic and environmental “disaster.”

The measures formed part of a much broader energy offensive designed to “unleash” already booming oil and gas production. This included declaring a national energy emergency, promoting fossil fuel drilling in Alaska and signing an executive order to withdraw the U.S. from the landmark Paris Agreement.

Joe Kaeser, chairman of the supervisory board of Siemens Energy, one of the world’s biggest renewables players, seemed unfazed by Trump’s sweeping energy agenda. In fact, Kaeser considered the policies a “slight plus” for the German energy technology group.

Shares of Siemens Energy jumped more than 8% on Wednesday morning, hitting a new 52-week high.

“We need to see what’s behind all the executive orders and the policies. So far, I believe there are many areas where actually Siemens Energy benefits a lot,” Kaeser told CNBC’s Dan Murphy at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday.

There will be uncertainty for low-carbon energy sectors, such as onshore and offshore wind, Kaeser said, before adding that Trump’s measures were unlikely to directly impact Siemens Energy. That’s partly because roughly 80% of the firm’s wind market is in Europe, Kaeser said.

European Union is not prepared for Trump 2.0, top German business executive says

“So, I believe that doesn’t move the needle. I’m much more worried about the European economies and how they deal with a very powerful nation, with a very powerful concept. We may or may not like it, because it’s got some nationalistic type of things, but if we look at it from the view of the American people, we better get something going,” Kaeser said.

Beyond onshore and offshore wind, Kaeser said Siemens Energy was well positioned to capitalize from a “booming” electrification market.

“Think about the data centers, artificial intelligence, we have waiting times now on large gas turbines. Actually, customers are coming and saying, hey can I make a reservation and I’ll pay you for a reservation? Just think about that. It hasn’t happened for a long time,” Kaeser said.

“I believe the electrification age has just begun. Whether that’s gas turbines or wind or solar or something else, we’ve got everything, and the customers decide in the end. And one thing I believe one should not underestimate, the White House is not buying much [but] the customer does,” he added.

‘Very, very optimistic’

Spanish renewable energy giant Iberdrola was similarly bullish about the road to full electrification, describing the transition away from fossil fuels as “absolutely unstoppable.”

“We are seeing that probably we are in the best moment for electrification,” Ignacio Galán, executive chairman of Iberdrola, told CNBC at WEF on Tuesday.

Galán cited soaring global demand for electrically powered data centers, low-emission vehicles as well as cooling and heating applications.

A logo on the nacelle of a wind turbine at the Martin de la Jara wind farm, operated by Iberdrola SA, in the Martin de la Jara district of Sevilla, Spain, on Friday, April 21, 2023.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

“All of those things require more electricity 24 hours a day. Our business in the United States is mostly in this area, which is networks … and the regulation depends on the state authority, so I think that is not really affected at all,” Galán said.

“Depending on the legislation, we will make more or less investment in another part of our business,” he added, referring to Trump’s energy policy.

“We are very, very optimistic about the United States and the future,” Galán said.

Wind power woes

Shares of some European wind power giants fell shortly after Trump took aim at wind power plans.

Denmark’s Orsted, which recently announced a roughly $1.7 billion impairment charge on U.S. projects, dipped 4.4% on Wednesday morning, extending steep losses from the previous session.

The rapidly growing offshore wind sector has endured a torrid time in recent years, hampered by rising costs, supply chain disruption and higher interest rates.

Windmills pictured during a press moment of Orsted, on Tuesday 06 August 2024, on the transportation of goods with Heavy Lift Cargo Drones to the offshore wind turbines in the Borssele 1 and 2 wind farm in Zeeland, Netherlands. 

Nicolas Maeterlinck | Afp | Getty Images

Artem Abramov, head of new energies research at Rystad Energy, said Trump’s energy agenda essentially means the likelihood of any new offshore developments in the U.S. has fallen to zero — at least for now.

“The US currently has around 2.4 gigawatts (GW) of advanced-stage offshore wind developments that have reached final investment decision and are under construction, which are unlikely to be impacted by the order,” Abramov said in a research note published Tuesday.

“Moderate risk amid the unfavorable investment climate is present for 10.5 GW of projects which secured necessary permits but have not reached investment decisions,” Abramov said.

“The remaining 25 GW of early-stage projects are unlikely to see any progress under the current administration,” he added.

— CNBC’s Spencer Kimball contributed to this report.

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Trump’s first day, Hyundai lease deals, and Volvo’s EVs arrive in the US

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Trump's first day, Hyundai lease deals, and Volvo's EVs arrive in the US

On today’s episode of Quick Charge, President Trump has a wild first day in office, but it’s not ALL bad, either. Plus: Tesla gets diner integration, Hyundai keeps the deal train rolling, and it’s dad’s 80th birthday.

We also look ahead to some possible discounts for Tesla insurance customers, some news on the upcoming “cheap” Cybertruck, and wonder out loud if Puerto Rico’s billion dollar solar project is going to see the light of day. All this and more – enjoy!

Prefer listening to your podcasts? Audio-only versions of Quick Charge are now available on Apple PodcastsSpotifyTuneIn, and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded, usually, Monday through Thursday (and sometimes Sunday). We’ll be posting bonus audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage daily news.

Got news? Let us know!
Drop us a line at tips@electrek.co. You can also rate us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show.

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Stripe cuts 300 jobs in product, engineering and operations

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Stripe cuts 300 jobs in product, engineering and operations

The Stripe logo on a smartphone with U.S. dollar banknotes in the background.

Budrul Chukrut | SOPA Images | LightRocket via Getty Images

Stripe cut 300 jobs, representing about 3.5% of its workforce, mostly in product, engineering and operations, CNBC has confirmed.

The payments company, valued at about $70 billion in the private markets, still expects to increase headcount by 10,000 by the end of the year, which would be a 17% increase, and is “not slowing down hiring,” according to a memo to staff from Chief People Office Rob McIntosh. Business Insider reported earlier on the cuts and the memo.

A Stripe spokesperson also confirmed to CNBC that a cartoon image of a duck with text that read, “US-Non-California Duck,” was accidentally attached as a PDF to emails sent to some of the employees who were laid off. Some of the emails mistakenly provided affected employees with an incorrect termination date, the spokesperson said.

McIntosh sent a follow-up email to staffers apologizing for the “notification error” and “any confusion it caused.”

“Corrected and full notifications have since been sent to all impacted Stripes,” he wrote.

In 2022, Stripe cut roughly 1,100 jobs, or 14% of its workers, downsizing alongside most of the tech industry, as soaring inflation and rising interest rates forced companies to focus on profits over growth. The Information reported that Stripe had a few dozen layoffs in its recruiting department in 2023.

Stripe’s valuation sank from a peak of $95 billion in 2021 to $50 billion in 2023, before reportedly rebounding to $70 billion last year as part of a secondary share sale. The company ranked third on last year’s CNBC Disruptor 50 list.

In October, Stripe agreed to pay $1.1 billion for crypto startup Bridge Network, whose technology is focused on making it easy for businesses to transact using digital currencies. 

Brothers Patrick and John Collison, who founded Stripe in 2010, have intentionally steered clear of the public markets and have given no indication that an offering is on the near-term horizon. Total payment volume at the company surpassed $1 trillion in 2023.

WATCH: Early Bridge investor weighs in on $1.1 billion Stripe deal

Early Bridge investor weighs in on $1.1 billion Stripe deal

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