Canada’s apex oil and gas lobby group may rue the day it made foreign-funded political meddling a public issue. For good reason, China’s election interference has sparked outrage in Canada. But China’s ability to sway a broad spectrum of Canadian voters is far weaker than the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producer’s foreign-funded political interference.
With three months to go until the COP28 United Nations climate talks begin in Dubai, critics have stepped up their condemnation of the decision to put Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, the head of Abu Dhabi’s state oil company ADNOC, in charge of the conference. What few may realize, however, is that Al Jaber’s ascent to the highest levels of climate diplomacy began 16 years ago, and Edelman, the largest public relations firm in the world, played a crucial role.
As climate action gains traction across Canada, a quiet feud is brewing in the oilsands over the best way to continue extracting fossil fuels in an era of decarbonization.