A scandal involving the host country of this years United Nations climate summit cast a dark cloud over the annual negotiations days before they kicked off in Dubai.

On Monday, the Centre for Climate Reporting and the BBC reported on leaked documents obtained from a whistleblower that purportedly show Sultan Al Jaber the controversial president of the 28th Conference of Parties, or COP28, and the CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company planned to leverage his role as head of the summit to broker oil and gas deals with other countries and boost fossil fuel exports from the United Arab Emirates.

In other words, a powerful oil executive someone whod already come under fire for seemingly glaring conflicts of interest in presiding over the summit apparently saw the climate conference as an opportunity to increase domestic production of planet-warming fossil fuels at a time when scientists are desperately warning that the world is running out of time to stave off catastrophic climate impacts.

While the revelation has rattled the global climate community, it did not happen in a vacuum. Instead, the reported backdoor dealings are the fitting icing on the cake of international climate negotiations that many climate and environmental activists argue have been hijacked by the very industry most responsible for the crisis.