The presidency of the UN climate conference in Dubai yesterday presented a draft agreement in which it rejects the proposal for a “gradual elimination of fossil fuels”, as requested by a hundred countries. Alternatively, it proposes “reducing the production and consumption” of these fossil energies. The proposal was widely rejected, which will make the closing day of the summit (scheduled for today) very turbulent.
Specifically, the draft Global Balance Sheet (key document of the summit) proposes to countries “to reduce the consumption and production of fossil fuels, in a fair, orderly and equitable manner, in order to reach the net zero level by to 2050, before or close to that date, according to science”. It also urges countries to accelerate the reduction in the use of coal without mitigation systems (capture and storage of CO2) and to limit the granting of authorizations for these new generation plants. The proposal is born after the hard position of Saudi Arabia, which has fiercely resisted any measure that marks the way to “exit” fossil fuels.
If approved, the 21-page agreement would be the first to call for a reduction in the use of all fossil fuels, including oil and gas, marking a historic change in the treaty. UN that governs the global fight against climate change.
However, for many countries the document does not go far enough; it does not address complete phase-out, leaves the door open to voluntary action, and does not provide a clear message for the energy sector to be forced to synchronize its plans with the emissions reductions needed to avoid global warming of 1.5ºC.
The EU sees the text as “totally unacceptable” and disappointing, because there is no reference to the end of fossil fuels. With the options currently on the table, “I find it difficult to reach an agreement tomorrow (for today) at 11 a.m., as the COP28 presidency wants,” said Spanish Minister Teresa Ribera, who, despite this, he clarified that there are hours and even days to try to close an agreement. Ribera misses concepts that define a clear path on what the energy sector must do in view of the rapid and necessary decline in emissions and what is the role of fossil fuels both in the medium term (2030) and in the long term (2050). The objective must be to guarantee “the progressive reduction of fossil fuels until they have been eliminated” and that access to new energy is compatible with what “science demands” to guarantee climate security, which requires that the temperature “do not rise above 1.5ºC”.
The United States Department of State declared that “the last draft of the COP28 agreement needs to be strengthened”.
“The Republic of the Marshall Islands (in the equatorial Pacific, northeast of Australia) is not coming here to sign our death warrant,” said John Silk, head of the Marshall Islands delegation, a nation at risk. due to sea level rise. “What we saw today is unacceptable. We will not go silently to our watery graves.”
Some other voices saw positive elements in it. “This is the first COP where the words fossil fuels are actually included in the draft decision,” said Mohamed Adow, director of Power Shift Africa. “This is the beginning of the end of the era of fossil fuels”, he assessed.
The draft Global Balance includes in the list of actions that countries could take to reduce emissions, other options, such as tripling the capacity of renewable energy on a global scale, accelerating zero emission technologies, betting on the nuclear energy and carbon capture and storage technologies, and also hydrogen production with low carbon emissions. Javier Andaluz, from Ecologistes en Acció, said that the worst thing is that it opens the door “to false solutions”, since carbon capture and storage technologies and nuclear energy are included.