Letters to the Editor: How an engineer’s mentality created real climate progress at COP28
To the editor: Thanks for the thoughtful editorial, “After COP28, let’s make this the ‘beginning of the end’ of fossil fuels.”
There has been much discussion about the United Arab Emirates hosting the COP28 climate conference and selecting Sultan Al Jaber, chief executive of the state-owned oil company ADNOC, as the meeting’s president. However, it should be noted that Al Jaber is an engineer, and his training as such has instilled in him a thought process best defined as “design under constraint.”
Engineers are trained to be mindful of constraints while searching for an optimal solution, which may not necessarily be the best or ideal solution to a given problem.
It is noteworthy that Al Jaber is also the founder of the renewable energy company Masdar, which, according to a Sept. 13 article in the New York Times, “has invested billions of dollars in zero-emissions energy technologies like wind and solar power across 40 countries.” Moreover, ADNOC has recently allocated $15 billion for decarbonization projects by 2030.
Perhaps oil companies in the U.S. and elsewhere should learn from and follow ADNOC’s path.
Al Jaber, as a true engineer, succeeded in reaching joint optimization at COP28 — finding an optimal solution for the realities of the world’s need for clean energy and decarbonization.
Najmedin Meshkati, Los Angeles
The writer is a professor of engineering and international relations at USC.
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To the editor: It’s disappointing that an unproven technology like carbon capture has played a role in derailing any meaningful pathways to carbon draw-down.
But we can’t get numbed by the enormity of this problem. We need political will. Lots of people have to vote for legislation that accelerates the transition. Don’t let talking points dissuade your resolve.
Technologically we have the ability. Financially we have the tools. Legislatively it’s been written and revised. People have to get behind it, hold legislators accountable to it and stay the course while the weather gets scary.
Pam Brennan, Newport Beach
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To the editor: COP28 concluded with oil interests successfully fighting back a phaseout of fossil fuels, instead calling for an undefined “transition away” that will, in fact, allow a continued phase-up of fossil fuel production and use. Slipped into the COP28 agreement was an endorsement of “transitional fuels” (read methane or fracked gas), whose carbon pollution is only marginally better than coal.
That after 30 years of climate conferences many are celebrating the vague intention of transitioning away from fossil fuels without any requirement for real action is testament to the oil industry’s power.
That many nations, not just petro-states, have announced plans to vastly expand their oil and gas production exposes the reality that the agreements reached at COP28 will contribute little to mitigating the climate crisis and a great deal to prolonging a fossil-fueled future.
Robert Taylor, Santa Barbara
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To the editor: Eventually, humans will realize that it is folly to wait for governments to cut off the fossil fuel spigot. We each individually have the power to curtail the use of fossil fuel energy.
It is akin to tackling drug addiction. But it can be done, and it must be.
Bikes, electric vehicles, heat pumps, public transportation and myriad other lifestyle adjustments can be adopted. Don’t wait for governments and politicians, who are beholden to fossil fuel interests, to act.
Andrew Tilles, Studio City
