Sultan Al Jaber -- who also heads state oil giant ADNOC -- made the comments during a testy exchange with former Irish leader Mary Robinson during an online forum, video published by The Guardian showed.
The 50-year-old, who is also the United Arab Emirates' climate envoy, added that removing fossil fuels would take the world "back into caves".
"I'm not in any way signing up to a discussion that is alarmist," Jaber told the SHE Changes Climate online conference on November 21.
"I am factual and I respect the science, and there is no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says that the phase-out of fossil fuels is what's going to achieve 1.5."
The landmark 2015 Paris climate conference outlined the goal of restricting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels to avoid catastrophic environmental fallout.
A United Nations assessment of climate pledges released last month found the world was way off-track in hitting this target.
"1.5 is my North Star and a phase-down and a phase-out of fossil fuels in my mind is inevitable, it's essential," Jaber told the forum on women leading climate action.
"But we need to be real, serious and pragmatic about it."
He added: "Show me a roadmap for a phase-out of fossil fuels that will allow for sustainable socio-economic development, unless you want to take the world back into caves."
- 'Attempt to undermine' -
Specifying a "phase-out" or weaker "phase-down" of fossil fuels is one of the main battles facing negotiators at COP28 in Dubai, where they will try to reach a new agreement to deal with global warming.
Jaber has repeated since June that phasing out hydrocarbons is inevitable, but that it cannot happen before viable alternatives are in place -- and that developed nations must lead the way.
A COP28 spokesperson said the report was "just another attempt to undermine the presidency's agenda, which has been clear and transparent and backed by tangible achievements by the COP president and his team.
"The COP president was unwavering in saying reaching 1.5C involves action across a number of areas and sectors. The COP president is clear that phasing down and out of fossil fuels is inevitable and that we must keep 1.5C within reach."
Joeri Rogelj, professor of climate science and policy at Imperial College London, said last month's report by the UN's IPCC climate change panel backed a phase-out.
"I strongly recommend (Jaber) asking around for the latest IPCC report," he said.
"That report, approved unanimously by 195 countries including the UAE, shows a variety of ways to limit warming to 1.5C -- all of which indicate a de facto phase-out of fossil fuels in the first half of the century."
At COP28, Al Gore takes aim at host UAE's emissions
Dubai (AFP) Dec 3, 2023 -
Armed with satellite images of pipelines, former US vice president and climate champion Al Gore singled out the emissions of the United Arab Emirates at the COP28 talks in the oil-rich monarchy on Sunday.
Gore and Climate TRACE, an independent emissions tracker, had a message in Dubai to countries and industries around the world: no one can hide their emissions anymore.
Using a network of 300 satellites and artificial intelligence, Climate TRACE can now monitor emissions from more than 352 million sites from 10 industries.
Its data showed the UAE's greenhouse gas emissions rose by 7.5 percent in 2022 from the previous year, compared to a 1.5 percent increase for the entire world.
"In large regions of the world, it's very uncommon to have any self-reporting" of emissions, Gore said.
Speaking in the main plenary room of the COP28 site, Gore pointed to huge monitors showing satellite images of the major emitting sites in the UAE.
Another map showed leaks from pipelines.
"The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company still claims to have no emissions from methane or anything else from the transport of oil and gas," Gore said.
"Well, actually, they do. We can see them from space," he said.
The oil company, known as ADNOC, is headed by Sultan Al Jaber, whose appointment as president of COP28 infuriated climate campaigners.
ADNOC declined to comment when contacted by AFP about Gore's comments.
Gore praised a pledge by 50 oil and gas companies, including ADNOC, to reach "near zero" methane emissions.
"This was a wonderful pledge," Gore said. "But we're going to be measuring whether they comply with this or not."
"We have seen pledges in the past and we have seen misbehaviour by oil and gas companies in the past," he added.
The Climate TRACE data release Sunday showed that global greenhouse gas emissions increased by 8.6 percent between 2015, the year the landmark Paris climate agreement was sealed, and 2022.
Just five countries -- China, the United States, India, Indonesia and Russia -- accounted for 75 percent of those emissions.
And China alone was responsible for nearly half of the global increase.
Gore -- who shared the 2007 Nobel peace prize with the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- warned that for COP28 to be considered a "historic" success, countries had to commit to phasing out fossil fuels.
Tough negotiations on the issue have started at the conference which is due to end on December 12.
"Phase out fossil fuels," Gore thundered, drawing applause from the audience. "That is the solution to the climate crisis."
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