2023-12-12 04:12:35
Shortly before the planned end of the World Climate Conference in Dubai, the EU and dozens of other countries want to implement far-reaching improvements to the planned final text. EU chief negotiator Wobke Hoekstra classified the draft from the hosts from the United Arab Emirates on Monday evening as disappointing and inadequate.
Representatives of environmental organizations expressed some shock and outrage. The background is that the phase-out of coal, oil and gas demanded by more than 100 countries no longer appears in the text – unlike in previous versions.
“The draft presented does not do justice to the seriousness of the situation. Fossil fuels as the cause of the climate crisis are being explicitly mentioned for the first time – but unfortunately the countless mitigations around them clearly outweigh this,” said Austrian Environment Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens). Improvements are now being demanded, said the department head. “We’ve heard enough excuses.”
According to the plan, the two-week negotiations between almost 200 governments are scheduled to end this Tuesday followingnoon. As has almost always been the case in the past 20 years, the conference might now be extended. But this is not a problem for the European delegation.
A number of countries have recently expressed concerns regarding a decision to phase out fossil fuels, including oil-rich Saudi Arabia, but also China, Iraq, India and Russia.
Later in the evening, all heads of delegations met to discuss the impasse. Hoekstra and German Climate State Secretary Jennifer Morgan also met with the High Ambition Coalition – a group of industrialized nations and particularly vulnerable countries that want to move forward with ambition in the fight once morest the climate crisis.
Hoekstra wrote on Platform “That’s what science demands, and that’s what our children deserve.” The chief negotiator for the Marshall Islands, threatened by rising sea levels, John Silk, said they had not come to Dubai “to sign our death warrant.”
Among other things, the text lacked concrete instruments to get on the 1.5 degree path and to push forward the necessary energy transition, especially in many regions of Africa, Asia and Latin America – which these states in Dubai would have strongly demanded. And the passage on fossil energies incorrectly suggests that coal, oil and gas might continue to play a crucial role in our future.
From the beginning there was a lot of criticism regarding the fact that conference president Sultan al-Jaber is also the head of the state oil company Adnoc and that around 1,400 lobbyists for coal, oil and gas were officially accredited. Al-Jaber said that the time for discussions was now coming to an end, but also indicated in the evening that he expected improvements to the text. “We still have a lot of gaps to fill,” he said. “We need to deliver a result that respects the science and keeps the 1.5 degree target within reach.” He expects the delegates to have the highest ambition on all points – “including with regard to the language on fossil fuels.”
From Greenpeace Austria’s point of view, the draft is a “severe setback” because the option for a clear fossil fuel phase-out has now completely disappeared, “only a weak concession to reduce fossil energy around 2050 remains.” This is just one of many options that include nuclear power or pseudo-solutions such as carbon storage. “This is not the desperately needed signal that we need in the fight once morest the climate crisis,” criticized Jasmin Duregger, climate and energy expert at Greenpeace in Austria.
WWF Austria described the draft “Global Inventory” as disappointing because it needed an agreement to phase out all fossil energy sources – “not just coal, but also oil and gas. What is now on the table is a lot not ambitious enough and does not send the clear political signal that must come from this climate conference,” said WWF climate spokesman Thomas Zehetner.
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