The Secretary General of the UN, António Guterres, has again advocated for the abandonment of fossil fuels, with an agreed calendar. And he did it in his speech at the Dubai climate change conference. Likewise, he claimed to impose taxes on the extraordinary profits of oil companies. “We cannot save a burning planet with a fossil fuel hose. The science is clear: the (warming) limit of 1.5ºC is only possible if we stop burning all fossil fuels: we do not reduce them; we don’t diminish them,” he said, indirectly referring to the nascent technologies to capture and store carbon emissions, wielded to legitimize the continuation of fossil fuels.
However, Guterres assured that it is not too late to limit global warming and avoid planetary collapse, as long as we act now and agree on the progressive elimination of all fossil fuels. “Don’t continue betting on an outdated business model and lead the transition to renewable energies”, he asked the oil companies, since climate sustainability “is also the only viable way for the economic sustainability of their companies” .
Guterres, a leading actor with his endless catalog of metaphors to warn about the effects of warming, asked governments to be congruent with the 1.5ºC goal and help the sector make the right decisions “by regulating, legislating, putting a fair price on carbon, eliminating fossil fuel subsidies and adopting a windfall tax”.
The European institutions reiterated their proposal in favor of a gradual elimination of fossil fuels, a proposal that has the support of neither China nor India. The big topic under discussion at the summit is to determine whether the idea of ??”a reduction” or “a gradual elimination” of fossil energy that does not have CO2 capture and storage systems will be included in the final agreement. It is the great workhorse. At this point, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, asked the G7 countries for a commitment to “put an end to coal” before 2030 to “set an example”, since these investments are “truly absurd”. And he pointed to China, “now the second historical issuing country and which, therefore, has changed its status in some way”, he stressed. “Power plants that are heavily concentrated in Asia will alone emit enough CO2 to exceed the 1.5°C target,” the most ambitious goal of the Paris Agreement, he said.
China, meanwhile, wants to tiptoe through it, as if seeking invisibility. Its vice premier, Ding Xuexiang, referred, without detailing figures, to the “significant reduction” in the intensity of carbon emissions in China and to the leading role of the production of vehicles powered by new energies, which “they have been leading the sales for eight consecutive years”.
European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen reiterated that the EU wants emissions to peak in 2015 and said COP28 “can make history” on energy after more than 110 countries supported, since last spring, a call to triple renewable energies and double energy efficiency by 2030”.
President Pedro Sánchez announced that Spain will contribute 20 million euros to the new loss and damage fund approved at the Dubai climate summit to repair climate damage to the most vulnerable nations. “I am not delusional. The climate emergency is wreaking havoc and we are far from meeting the goals set in Paris, but this COP offers an opportunity to adopt a new strengthened, fair and equitable climate agenda,” he said.