COP DANCE — You can say this much for John Kerry: He's standing by his man at the U.N.'s global climate summit. The chief U.S. climate diplomat, who has consistently backed the controversial choice of Sultan al-Jaber to lead COP28, found himself on the defensive again amid reports that the oil executive questioned the need to phase out fossil fuels. Kerry told POLITICO about al-Jaber’s reported November comments that “maybe it came out the wrong way” and could use a “clarification,” Anne McElvoy, Peter Snowdon and Zack Colman report. “Look, he's gotta decide how he wants to phrase it, but the bottom line is this COP needs to be committed to phasing out all unabated fossil fuel,” Kerry said. Al-Jaber bashed the media’s portrayal of his past statements and reiterated his support to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures. Kerry hasn’t wavered in supporting al-Jaber, who is CEO of the United Arab Emirates’ state-owned oil company, even as recent reports exposed the COP28 host nation’s willingness to use its perch as a way to expand its energy ambitions. Al-Jaber unveiled the fruits of his negotiating efforts over the weekend with a new alliance of 50 companies pledging to cut pollution, but U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres was among those pooh-poohing the initiative as one that falls short of what is required to meet net-zero targets. Something to pay attention to: Kerry and others at COP28 are increasingly inserting the word "unabated" into discussions around whether to phase out or phase down fossil fuel production and use. Some environmentalists see that word choice — which suggests reliance on unproven and unscaled technologies such as carbon capture — as a way for oil producing nations to shift the focus away from the need for absolute emission reductions. A new plan: Kerry also revealed a new plan on Sunday for how to finance the green transition in developing countries through a carbon market, Sara Schonhardt reports. The Energy Transition Accelerator program would offer carbon credits to companies if they pay into a system that’s intended to help pay for the shift to cleaner energy in low- and middle-income countries.
| 
