©Reuters. File photo: Participants walk at the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, December 8, 2023.Reuters/Thaier Al Sudani/File photo
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Written by Kate Abnett, Valerie Borkovich, Yusef Saba
DUBAI (Reuters) – Countries clashed on Saturday over a potential deal to phase out fossil fuels at the COP28 summit in Dubai, ending the use of oil and gas amid three decades of global warming. An attempt to fulfill the first-ever promise to end the war is in jeopardy. I talk.
Negotiators said Saudi Arabia and Russia had insisted that the Dubai meeting focus solely on reducing climate pollution and not target the fossil fuels that cause it.
Meanwhile, at least 80 countries, including the United States, the European Union and many poorer countries vulnerable to climate change, are demanding that the COP28 agreement explicitly call for a final end to fossil fuels.
COP28 President Sultan Al-Jaber said late on Saturday that “there is still more disagreement than agreement” and called on countries to accelerate work to find a final agreement.
“The window is closing to bridge the gap,” he said at the summit.
“We need a pragmatic approach to tackling emissions that enables economic growth and eradicates poverty,” OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al Ghaith said earlier in comments read by officials to summit delegates. “This will contribute to the recovery of the population and at the same time increase resilience.”
Earlier this week, a group of oil producing countries sent a letter to its members and allies urging them to reject references to fossil fuels in the final summit agreement, warning that “unwarranted and unwarranted pressure on fossil fuels could reach a tipping point. ‘ he warned.
Alden Meyer of the climate change think tank E3G said this was the first time the OPEC secretariat had intervened in UN climate change negotiations with a letter like this. “It shows signs of panic,” he said.
EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra criticized the letter as “out of step” with tackling climate change.
“Many people, including myself, see this as misplaced, unhelpful and out of step with the world’s position in terms of the very dramatic state of the climate,” he said.
Saudi Arabia is OPEC’s top producer and de facto leader of the organization, and Russia is a member of the so-called OPEC+ group.
Both countries appear to be leaning on the promise of expensive carbon capture technology by insisting on focusing on emissions rather than fossil fuels, but the United Nations Climate Science Committee says the technology is It says it is not a substitute for reducing fossil fuel use.
Other countries, including India and China, have not explicitly supported phasing out fossil fuels at COP28, but have supported public calls to expand renewable energy.
China’s top climate envoy, Xie Zhenhu, said this year’s climate summit was the most difficult of his career.
“I’ve been participating in these climate negotiations for 16 years,” he told reporters. “This is the most difficult conference this year. There are so many issues to resolve.”
He said there was little chance the summit could be called a success unless countries could agree on text on the future of fossil fuels.
India’s Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav said rich countries should lead the global fight against climate change and called for “equity and justice” in any deal.
Broad diplomatic complaints were also aired from the podium on Saturday, clouding the focus on global warming.
Russia’s representative said in a speech that the Russian government is considering whether some of the roughly $300 billion in gold reserves frozen by Western countries after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could be earmarked for climate damage funds for developing countries. Ta.
Meanwhile, China expressed dissatisfaction, saying that talk of Taiwan’s participation in the talks was unacceptable. The representative of Palestine also condemned Israel’s war in Gaza, saying the conflict had made it difficult to focus on tackling climate change.
“Critical stage”
The summit is scheduled to conclude on Tuesday, with government ministers from around 200 countries participating in the Dubai summit joining efforts to resolve the fossil fuel impasse.
Countries vulnerable to climate change said the entire world would be threatened if reference to fossil fuels was rejected at COP28.
“Nothing puts the prosperity and future of everyone on Earth at greater risk than fossil fuels, including all OPEC members,” Tina Stege, Marshall Islands special envoy for climate change, said in a statement.
The Marshall Islands, which faces flooding from rising sea levels due to climate change, currently chairs the Coalition for High Ambitions, a group of nations pushing for stronger emissions reduction targets and policies.
To meet the global goal of limiting climate warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the coalition is “driving to phase out the fossil fuels that are at the root of this crisis,” he said. “1.5 is non-negotiable and that means the end of fossil fuels.”
The latest version of the negotiating document, released on Friday, states that countries will go from agreeing to “phasing out fossil fuels in line with the best available science” to phasing out “unabated fossil fuels.” , indicating that it is still considering a wide range of options. No mention at all.
Germany’s climate envoy Jennifer Morgan said the counties were “in an important stage of negotiations”.
“It’s time for all countries to remember what is at stake,” she said. “I’m concerned that not everyone is engaging constructively.”
Asked about OPEC’s letter, COP28 Secretary-General Majid Al Suwaidi avoided the word “fossil fuels,” but said the United Arab Emirates, as summit president, is committed to helping the world limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. He said he hopes for an agreement to get things back on track.
“Our COP president… clearly wants the most ambitious outcome possible and I believe we can achieve it,” he told a news conference.
Samoa’s Environment Minister Cedric Schuster, speaking on behalf of the Alliance of Small Island States, expressed concern that this year’s negotiations were becoming mired in disputes.
“We are very concerned about the pace of negotiations given the limited time we have left here in Dubai,” he said on the main stage of the summit on Saturday.
“Renewable energy targets cannot replace stronger commitments to phasing out fossil fuels and eliminating fossil fuel subsidies,” he said. “COP28 needs to achieve both.”
Azerbaijan will host next year’s COP29 climate change summit with support from other Eastern European countries, likely to end geopolitical deadlock over the next global gathering to tackle climate change is.
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