The COP28 presidency, led by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), proposed this Wednesday a new agreement to unblock the climate negotiations in Dubai, calling for the abandonment of fossil fuels, to achieve carbon neutrality in 2050.
The document, whose publication was awaited all night by the negotiators of this United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP28), proposes, for the first time in the history of these meetings, to mention all fossil fuels, the main responsible for the change. climate, in 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 equitable manner, accelerating action in this crucial decade, in order to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 in accordance with scientific recommendations” .
The call to accelerate action in this decade was a demand from the European Union and many other countries.
However, it no longer refers to “an exit” from oil, gas and coal, as more than a hundred countries demand.
To make history, this compromise text, the result of tough negotiations between the European Union, small island states, the United States, China and Saudi Arabia, must be approved by consensus of some 200 countries.
The COP presidency, headed by Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, director of the Dubai oil company Adnoc, called a plenary session for this Wednesday, at 9:30 a.m. (5:30 a.m. in Lisbon).
According to the rules of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, only a 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 announced as a “turning point”, capable of preserving the most ambitious goal of the Paris Agreement, adopted eight years ago: limiting the increase in global temperature to 1 ,5°. c.
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 1.2°C global temperature rise. compared to the previous time. -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
