DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A new consensus emerged at the United Nations COP28 climate talks early Wednesday; The world will eventually wean itself off planet-warming fossil fuels, critics have called for a global recovery that is stronger than that proposed in earlier days but has woeful gaps.
The new proposal does not include language calling for a “phase out” of fossil fuels, as demanded by more than 100 countries. Instead, it calls for “an equitable transition of energy systems away from fossil fuels.” “The transition will take place in a way that will enable the world to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and follow the directions of climate science. This transition will take place in a way that will enable the world to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, in an orderly and fair way. This transition will take place in a way that gradually increases carbon emissions by 2025 to reach the agreed threshold.” It envisions a world in which pollution will peak, but gives individual nations, such as China, leeway to reach the peak later.
Intense sessions attended by delegates of all stripes continued into the early hours of Wednesday morning after the conference presidency’s first document angered many countries by avoiding calls for decisive action to stop warming. The United Arab Emirates-led presidency then presented a new central document, called the global stocktake, to delegates from nearly 200 countries just after sunrise.
The word “oil” appears nowhere in this 21-page document, the third version submitted in about two weeks, but “fossil fuels” appears twice.
“We needed a global signal to address fossil fuels. Jean Su, director of energy justice at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement to the Associated Press that for the first time in 28 years, countries have had to deal with fossil fuels. “So it’s an overall win. But the actual details here are seriously flawed.
“The problem with the text is that it still contains huge loopholes that allow the United States and other fossil fuel-producing countries to continue expanding fossil fuels,” Su said. “There is a rather fatal, fatal flaw in the text that allows transition fuels to continue,” which is the code word for natural gas, which also emits carbon pollution.
“The text has many loopholes and offers various giveaways to greenwashers by mentioning carbon capture and storage, so-called transition fuels, nuclear energy and carbon markets,” said Action Aid global climate chief Teresa Anderson. “Overall, it charts a rocky road to a fossil-free future.”
But Melanie Robinson, Director of the World Resources Institute’s Global Climate Program, praised the plan, saying “this will make significant progress in the fight against climate change and overcome enormous pressure from oil and gas interests.”
The goal of the global stockpile is to help nations align their national climate plans with the 2015 Paris agreement, which calls for limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). The world is heading towards it Broke the record for hottest yearIt endangers human health and leads to extreme weather that is more costly and deadly than ever before.
Nations were given a few hours to review what COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber and his team had produced. They will then meet in a session that could lead to acceptance of the text or send negotiators back for further work.
Previous versions of the draft have changed some of the language that upset many countries calling for dramatic action against climate change. Actions that were previously presented as an optional “can” have evolved into slightly more directive “calls to the parties.”
Other documents filed before sunrise Wednesday addressed thorny issues like money to help poor nations adapt to global warming and emit less carbon, as well as how countries should adapt to a warming climate. Many financial issues are expected to be resolved at climate conferences to be held in Azerbaijan and Brazil in the next two years. The United Nations Environment Program estimates that developing countries need $194-366 billion annually to help them adapt to a hotter, wilder world.
“Overall, I think this is a stronger text than the previous versions we have seen,” said Cristina Rumbaitis del Rio, senior compliance advisor at the UN Foundation. “But mobilizing the funding needed to achieve these goals falls short.”
“Where do we go from here if we can’t agree on a strong signal on compliance?” Emilie Beauchamp of the International Institute for Sustainable Development added that the text on adaptation did not achieve its purpose. “Instead, adaptation has been left in the broom closet of these negotiations.”
The annual conference was supposed to end Tuesday after nearly two weeks of work and speeches. Instead, negotiators were in closed meetings as they reworked the key document that had failed the day before.
Oil, gas and coal are the main factors of heating; Activists, experts and many countries have argued that aggressive containment of fossil fuels is critical to limiting warming.
The key to the summit is to find language that won’t cause someone to block the agreement because a final agreement must be consensual. But Joanna Depledge, a historian of climate negotiations at the University of Cambridge, said consensus did not require unanimity and that at past climate summits an agreement had been reached over the objections of one or two countries.
“It’s not impossible to reject, it’s just very, very risky politically,” he said.
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Associated Press journalists Lujain Jo, Joshua A. Bickel, Olivia Zhang, Malak Harb, Bassam Hatoum and David Keyton contributed to this report.
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