Hello! This week, the United Arab Emirates said it will leave the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) group, which came as a huge shock for the rest of the alliance.
This latest turbulence in the oil and gas industry got me thinking about the movement to phase out fossil fuels and whether this was a positive omen for environmentalists and anti-Big Oil campaigners or whether there was a catch.
Although OPEC and its allies will lose some of their power over the oil market when the UAE leaves on May 1, the rest of the producer alliance is likely to stick together to coordinate oil supply policy, OPEC+ delegates and analysts said.
But what did attendees at the first Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels in Santa Marta, Colombia, think?
Keep scrolling to find out more, but before you do, here are some fascinating tech, social and governance stories on my radar:
SpaceX ties Musk compensation to Mars colonization goal
Iran eases internet curbs for businesses as blackout enters third month
Amazon targets mass hiring with agentic software, goal to humanize AI
EU rules reining in Big Tech will now target cloud services and AI, regulators say
UAE's exit from OPEC
The UAE will become the largest oil producer to quit OPEC, a heavy blow to the organization and its de facto leader Saudi Arabia.
It’s also the fourth producer to leave OPEC+ in recent years, and by far the biggest. Angola quit the bloc in 2024, citing disagreements over production levels. Ecuador quit in 2020 and Qatar in 2019.
The current members of OPEC are: Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, Algeria, Libya, Nigeria, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Venezuela.
There has been tension between the UAE and Saudi Arabia over the Emiratis' production quota, which stands at 3.5 million bpd.
The UAE has asked for a bigger quota to reflect the fact that it had expanded capacity as part of a $150 billion investment program.
Rumours of the UAE's exit from OPEC+ have circulated for years amid worsening relations with Riyadh over conflicts in Sudan, Somalia and Yemen. The UAE has also grown increasingly close to the United States and Israel.
A win for fossil fuel phase-out?
I spoke to multiple environmental groups and think-tanks who attended the conference in Santa Marta who said they saw this as an opportunity to build momentum around a fossil fuel phase-out.
Guy Prince, head of energy supply, at independent financial think tank Carbon Tracker, said that the UAE’s decision highlighted a weakening supply coordination among producers at a time of geopolitical strain and growing uncertainty about long-term oil demand.
“This is exactly what countries and financial institutions recognized in Santa Marta, where nearly 60 governments discussed coordinated planning to manage declining fossil fuel revenues and reduce exposure to energy price shocks,” said Prince.
Louise Hutchins, convener at the environmental campaign group Make Polluters Pay Coalition, said the move created a clear sense of momentum.
“Governments, cities, states and civil society are collaboratively working out how to get off this dangerous fossil fuel roller coaster. At the same time, fractures like the UAE’s move away from OPEC underline how unstable and contested the fossil fuel system has become,” said Hutchins.
But there’s a catch. Although many civil society groups see this as a win for sustainability, some people like ActionAid International’s global lead on climate justice Teresa Anderson, saw many countries in Santa Marta expressing real anguish at their vuln
erability to fossil fuel price fluctuations.
“There’s a hunger to be free from the economic and climate harm of fossil fuel dependence,” said Anderson.
"That is precisely why Santa Marta's reforms must be delivered: debt cancellation, an end to Investor-State Dispute Settlement, and rules that give Global South countries the technology access and policy space to build their own futures," said Dr Ketakandriana Rafitoson, executive director at Resource Justice Network.
Talking Points
ESG Lens
The U.S. Supreme Court gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act - making it harder for minorities to challenge electoral maps as racially discriminatory under the landmark civil rights law - in a victory for Louisiana Republicans and Trump's administration.
The ruling hollows out Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which Congress enacted to bar electoral maps that would result in diluting the power of minority voters in Louisiana, where Black people make up roughly a third of the population.
Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also subscribehere.
