The Independent's Climate Newsletter
Monday, December 11, 2023 | |
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Security officers escort indigenous climate activist from India, Licypriya Kangujam, 12, as she protests at Cop28, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Monday (EPA) |
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Welcome to a special newsletter from The Independent, bringing you the latest from Cop28 in Dubai. You are receiving this email because you are signed up to our Climate newsletter.
With less than 24 hours to go before Cop28 is due to officially end, the reference to "phase out" of fossil fuels has been removed from the latest draft of the final agreement.
Calling time on fossil fuels, the root cause of the climate crisis, has emerged as the central battle of the Dubai negotiations.
The European Union and vulnerable, developing countries have called for phasing out of fossil fuels while oil-rich nations including Saudi Arabia and Russia have strongly opposed.
"Phase out" or "phase down" of fossil fuels had been included as an option in an earlier draft of the text but were now deleted.
These climate negotiations are the first time that fossil fuels have been mentioned in the final agreement, but it is the wording around their future that is key.
On Monday night, Sultan Al Jaber, the United Arab Emirates Cop28 president, told the summit that progress had been made but that "we still have a lot to do".
"You know what remains to be agreed. And you know that I want you to deliver the highest ambition on all items including on fossil fuel language," he said.
Climate vulnerable nations slammed the latest draft. "We did not come here to sign our death warrant. We came here to fight for 1.5C and for the only way to achieve that: a fossil fuel phase-out…We will not go silently to our watery graves," said John M Silk, the Marshall Islands Minister of Natural Resources and Commerce.
Saudi Arabia and Iraq were named as among the countries who had blocked "phase out" and "phase down" by those close to the talks.
The latest version of the "Global Stocktake under the Paris Agreement, now calls for:
-Reducing both consumption and production of fossil fuels, in a "just, orderly and equitable manner" so as to achieve net zero by, before, or around 2050 in keeping with the science.
A second statement called for "accelerating zero and low emissions technologies... renewables, nuclear, abatement and removal technologies, including such as carbon capture and utilization and storage, and low carbon hydrogen production, so as to enhance efforts towards substitution of unabated fossil fuels in energy systems".
An earlier draft of the text had a range of options, the strongest of which was: "A phase-out of fossil fuels in line with best available science." But it also offered the possibility of no mention of fossil fuels.
The agreement is still in flux and will be hotly debated long into the night among countries, many of whom are currently far apart on what their energy futures should look like. For now, the draft also only states that countries, aka the "Parties", could take action. The words "oil and gas" also do not appear in the text.
The UN climate summit is due to end at 11am local time on Tuesday.
Alok Sharma, the UK's Cop26 president who broke down in tears over the fractious final debate in Glasgow, posted on Monday that it was "difficult" to see how the text "will help to achieve the deep and rapid cut in emissions we need by 2030 to keep 1.5C alive".
He wrote on X: "With so many countries backing clear language on fossil-fuel-phase-out, who does this text actually serve?"
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Any strategic landmines that blow it up for one, blow it up for all. |
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