Less than two months before the UN climate conference in Dubai (COP28), the countries staged their different positions yesterday in Madrid on the convenience of accelerating the pace of elimination of fossil fuels, the main culprits of climate change. . It was a meeting with energy and environment representatives, held within the framework of the Spanish presidency of the EU and in collaboration with the International Energy Agency (IEA). At this meeting, the Minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, defended that large banks stop financing oil, gas and coal extraction operations.
To move towards the decarbonization of the economy, Ribera called on the large financial conglomerates to be “congruent” with the energy transition and incorporate the needs of the climate into their decisions.
The debate is on the table. A consensus is emerging to triple the power of renewable sources by 2030, double energy efficiency and push the “decline” of fossil fuels. The director general of the IEA, Faith Birol, used this term while Ribera spoke of “pointing the way out” of fossil fuels.
But there is still a long way to go and there is some progress. Yesterday, COP28 President Sultan Ahmed Al Yaber, also CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), announced in a recorded video that more than 20 oil and gas companies, including state-owned companies, have responded positively to calls to align around a net-zero emissions target by 2050, to eliminate methane emissions and therefore end these routine flarings by 2030. The climate summit organizer did not cite companies accepting the commitment, but he did warn that countries are not on the right track to meet the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees. “The numbers are clear,” he said.
The director general of the IEA also called for a reduction in the use of fossil fuels and defended a mechanism to support the financing of the installation of clean energy in developing countries.
The preparatory meeting in Madrid served, therefore, to verify that the countries are not “aligned with the objectives of the Paris Agreement (…) but we cannot stop there,” claimed Teresa Ribera. “Anticipating this conversation has been a opportunity to identify meeting points, problems and concerns,” he explained. The participants did not agree on a declaration, although many of them wanted to clearly establish “that they should not carry out new exploration and exploitation of fossil fuels, and in particular, coal; and even less so if they do not have (carbon) capture systems to eliminate emissions.”
The meeting took place after the recent presentation of the results of the technical dialogue to prepare the first draft of a grand global balance on compliance with the Paris Agreement. The document, published by the secretariat of the UN Climate Change Convention, warns that to limit warming to 1.5 degrees, a cut in global emissions of 43% by 2030 and 60% by 2035 is needed in comparison with 2019. To achieve this, “it is necessary to progressively eliminate all fossil fuels,” defends the UN, although limiting the elimination to those that lack methods of reducing emissions.
The fossil fuel industry is actively campaigning to argue that they could continue producing when their emissions are prevented from entering the atmosphere using carbon capture technologies. This position is openly rejected by many scientists, experts and countries.
