Dubai, United Arab Emirates
A new commitment unveiled early Wednesday at the COP28 climate talks calls for abandoning planet-warming fossil fuels, a stronger demand than the one proposed a few days earlier but with loopholes that angered critics.
The new proposal does not specifically mention “phasing out” fossil fuels, as more than a hundred nations had called for. Instead, it calls for “the transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems in a fair, orderly and equitable manner to accelerate action in this critical decade.” The change would be implemented so that the planet reaches emissions neutrality in 2050 and is in line with the Climate science follows. It calls for the world's carbon pollution to peak in 2025 to reach the agreed limit, but leaves scope for certain nations such as China to reach that point later.
The intense sessions with delegates of all stripes lasted into the early hours of Wednesday after the presidency's first document of the United Nations Conference of the Parties angered many countries by avoiding a strong call for action to curb global warming. Just before dawn, the UAE COP Presidency presented delegates from nearly 200 countries with a new key document – the so-called “Global Stocktake”.
It is the third version, created in about two weeks, and in its 21 pages the word “petroleum” does not appear, but “fossil fuels” does appear twice.
“We needed a global signal to take action against fossil fuels. “This is the first time in 28 years that countries have been forced to address fossil fuels,” Jean Su, director of energy justice at the Center for Biological Diversity, told The Associated Press. “So this is an overall win. But the actual details are very scarce.”
“The problem with the text is that it continues to contain huge loopholes that allow the United States and other fossil fuel producers to continue their fossil fuel expansion,” Su added. “The text contains a fairly fatal error that allows “transitional fuels to be pushed further,” which is a code word for natural gas, which also emits carbon dioxide.
“The text has many gaps and offers multiple gifts to those who claim to be environmentalists, with mentions of carbon capture and storage, so-called transition fuels, nuclear energy and carbon markets,” said Action Aid global climate chief Teresa Anderson. “Taken together, it shows a rocky road to a fossil-free future.”
For her part, Director of the Global Climate Program at the World Resources Institute, Melanie Robinson, praised the plan, saying it would “dramatically move the needle in the fight against climate change and overcome immense pressure from oil and gas interests.” ” .
The goal of the global inventory is to help nations align their national climate plans with the 2015 Paris Agreement, which calls for limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). Earth is on track to break the record for hottest year, endangering human health and causing increasingly costly and deadly extreme weather events.
Countries had a few hours to review the document prepared by COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber and his team. They will then hold a meeting that could end with the adoption of the text or a return to negotiations.
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Associated Press writers Lujain Jo, Joshua A. Bickel, Olivia Zhang, Malak Harb, Bassam Hatoum and David Keyton contributed to this report.
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The Associated Press' climate and environmental reporting is supported by several private foundations. The AP is solely responsible for the content.
This story was originally published on December 13, 2023 at 1:57 a.m.