The COP28 presidency, led by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), this Wednesday proposed a new agreement to kick-start climate negotiations in Dubai, calling for an abandonment of fossil fuels to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
The document, which the negotiators of this United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP28) have been waiting all night for, proposes that for the first time in the history of these meetings, all fossil fuels, which are the main drivers of climate change, to mention a decision that must be adopted in all countries.
The text calls for “the transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a fair, orderly and just manner, accelerating action in this crucial decade, to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 in line with scientific recommendations.”
The call to accelerate action this decade was a demand from the European Union and many other countries.
However, there is no longer talk of an ‘exit’ from oil, gas and coal, as demanded by more than a hundred countries.
To make history: this compromise text, the result of hard negotiations between the European Union, small island states, the United States, China and Saudi Arabia, it will have to be approved by consensus by about 200 countries.
The COP presidency, led by Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, director of the Dubai oil company Adnoc, held a plenary session today at 9:30 am (5:30 am Lisbon).
Under the rules of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, only one country can oppose the adoption of a decision at the COP.
For more than 24 hours, Sultan Al Jaber tried to save a COP that he heralded as a “turning point” capable of preserving the most ambitious objective of the Paris Agreement, adopted eight years ago: the increase in limit global temperatures to 1.5°. c.
The first draft of the UAE text sparked controversy on Monday for not calling for an “exit” from fossil fuels, whose combustion since the 19th century is largely responsible for the current 1.2°C increase in global temperatures compared with the period before that. -industrial era.
“We are making progress,” US climate envoy John Kerry said on Tuesday evening as he began a new round of talks. “Good progress is being made,” agreed Australian Climate Minister Chris Bowen.
About 130 countries, including the United States and Brazil, called for an ambitious text that would send a clear signal to start the decline of fossil fuels.
So far, only a coal reduction has been agreed at COP26 in Glasgow. Oil and gas were never mentioned.
The UAE’s draft agreement includes recognizing the role that ‘transition energies’, in reference to gas, play in ensuring ‘energy security’ in developing countries, where almost 800 million people do not have access to electricity.
The text includes a series of energy-related calls: to triple renewable energy capacity and double the pace of energy efficiency improvement by 2030, and to accelerate “carbon-free” and “low-carbon” technologies.
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq have taken a hard line and rejected any deal that attacks the fossil fuels that are the source of prosperity for these countries.
At a conference in Doha, Kuwaiti Oil Minister Saad al-Barrak condemned an “aggressive attack” by the West.
Source: DN
