A draft of a potential climate deal at the COP28 Summit on Monday suggested a range of measures countries could take to slash greenhouse gas emissions, but omitted the “phase out” of fossil fuels many nations have demanded – drawing criticism from the U.S., EU and climate-vulnerable countries.
Reuters reports that the draft has set the stage for contentious last-minute negotiations in the two-week summit in Dubai, which has laid bare deep international divisions over whether oil, gas and coal should have a place in a climate-friendly future.
The news medium noted that coalition of more than 100 countries had been pushing for an agreement would for the first time promise an eventual end to the oil age – but are up against opposition from members of the oil producer group OPEC.
COP28 President, Sultan Al Jaber, who has previously used the conference to call for a paradigm shift, was quoted as urging the nearly 200 countries at the talks to redouble their efforts to finalize a deal ahead of the scheduled close of the conference today, saying they “still have a lot to do.
Noting that the delegates have a lot to do , Al Jaber said: “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.
According to Reuters, the new draft of a COP28 agreement, published by the United Arab Emirates’ presidency of the summit, proposes various options but did not refer to a “phase out” of fossil fuels.
Instead, it listed eight options that countries could use to cut emissions, including: “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”.
Other actions listed in the new COP28 agreement include tripling renewable energy capacity by 2030, “rapidly phasing down unabated coal” and scaling up technologies including those to capture Co2 emissions to keep them from the atmosphere.
The online medium also quoted a senior associate at environmental think tank E3G, Alden Meyer, as criticizing the new deal as “basically an a la carte menu that allows countries to individually choose what they want to do.”
Despite the fact that emissions from burning fossil fuels are by far the main driver of climate change, 30 years’ worth of international climate negotiations have never resulted in a global agreement to cut their use.
Reuters further reported that in spite of the increasing transition to renewable energy globally, fossil fuels still produce around 80% of the world’s energy.
Negotiators told the online medium that OPEC and OPEC+ members including Russia, Iraq and Iran, have also resisted attempts to insert a fossil fuel phase-out into the COP28 deal.
