This Wednesday the countries approved the agreement reached at COP28, the environmental and climate summit taking place in Dubai. This is the first climate agreement on fossil fuels.
The consensus was reached after, this morning, the COP28 presidency, led by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), presented a new document that mentions the transition towards the end of all fossil fuels with the aim of achieving neutrality of carbon dioxide by 2050.
“We have the foundation to realize transformative change,” said COP28 President Sultan Al Jaber, emphasizing: “This is a historic and unprecedented achievement.”
“We should be proud of our historic achievement and the United Arab Emirates, my country, is rightly proud of its role in contributing to this progress,” he added.
The Dubai Climate Summit (COP28) agreed to begin a transition towards fossil fuels, after two weeks of intense negotiations in which around 200 countries debated how to collectively confront the climate crisis.
The countries represented at COP28 adopted on Wednesday the “Global Balance”, the agreement with which they intend to strengthen climate action to contain the increase in temperatures to no more than one and a half degrees above pre-industrial levels.
The agreement, approved by consensus in plenary, calls on States to begin a transition away from fossil fuels, “in an orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade, with the aim of achieving the goal of net zero emissions by 2050. according to science”.
At this summit, the priority was to pave the way for the abandonment of this type of energy by the European Union and other industrialized economies, as well as countries highly vulnerable to climate change, as is the case of many developing countries.
The priority of the summit was to pave the way for the transition from this type of energy, for the European Union and other industrialized economies, as well as for countries highly vulnerable to climate change, such as many developing states.
However, until the plenary session, there was uncertainty at COP28 over whether an agreement marking the end of the fossil fuel era would be accepted by oil-rich countries such as Saudi Arabia.
The first draft of the UAE text caused controversy on Monday because it did not call for “an exit” from fossil fuels, the combustion of which since the 19th century is largely responsible for the current global temperature rise of 1.2°C compared with the previous era. -industrial era.
“We are making progress,” US climate envoy John Kerry said Tuesday night as he headed into another round of talks. “Good progress is being made,” agreed Australian Climate Minister Chris Bowen.
Around 130 countries, including the United States and Brazil, called for an ambitious text that would send a clear signal to begin the decline of fossil fuels.
To date, only carbon reduction has been agreed at COP26 in Glasgow. Oil and gas were never mentioned.
The UAE draft agreement includes recognition of the role played by “transitional energies”, referring to gas, in ensuring “energy security” in developing countries, where almost 800 million people do not have access to electricity.
The text contains a series of energy-related calls: tripling renewable energy capacity and doubling the pace of improving energy efficiency by 2030, as well as accelerating “zero carbon” and “low carbon” technologies.
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq have taken a hard line, rejecting any agreement that attacks fossil fuels, which are the source of wealth for these countries.
At a conference in Doha on Tuesday, Kuwait’s Oil Minister Saad al-Barrak denounced an “aggressive attack” by the West.
Source: TSF
