A long-standing employee of the world’s largest oil company will hold the pen on a crucial chapter of the next review of global climate science.
Sudanese economist Mustafa Babiker, who has worked for the Saudi Aramco oil company for almost two decades, was named a coordinating lead author for the next U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report.
The IPCC’s reports are the gold standard of climate science, collating the finest research on the causes and consequences of heating the planet via the burning of fossil fuels.
Babiker’s nomination by the Saudi government, first reported by POLITICO in July, was greeted with concern by climate advocates, who described it as an example of corporate interference in the scientific process.
