Representatives from nearly 200 countries agreed at the COP28 climate summit on Wednesday to begin reducing global fossil fuel use to avoid the worst of climate change, the first agreement of its kind to mark the end of the oil age.
The agreement reached in Dubai after two weeks of intense negotiations aims to send a strong signal to investors and policymakers that the world is united in its desire to break with fossil fuels, something scientists say is the last best hope to prevent it. from climate disasters.
COP28 President Sultan Al Jaber called the agreement “historic” but added that the real success is in its implementation.
“We are what we do, not what we say,” he told a packed plenary at the summit. “We must take the necessary steps to turn this agreement into real action.”
United Arab Emirates Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and COP28 President Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber attends a plenary session at the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP28 in Dubai on Dec. 13, 2023. REUTERS
Few countries backed the deal to achieve something elusive in decades of climate talks.
“This is the first time the world has put together a clear text on the need to transition away from fossil fuels,” said Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide.
More than 100 countries have lobbied hard for strong language in the COP28 agreement to “phase out” the use of oil, gas and coal, but have faced strong opposition from the Saudi-led oil producer group, OPEC, which argues that the world can cut emissions without avoiding certain fuel.
A Saudi Arabian delegate speaks with another delegate ahead of a plenary meeting at the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP28 in Dubai Dec 13, 2023. REUTERS
The fighting pushed the full-day summit into overtime on Wednesday, and left some observers worried the talks would end in deadlock.
Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries control nearly 80% of the world’s proven oil reserves along with about a third of global oil production, and their governments are heavily dependent on those revenues.
Meanwhile, the climate-vulnerable small island nation has been among the most vocal proponents of language to phase out fossil fuels and has the support of major oil and gas producers such as the United States, Canada and Norway, along with the EU bloc and several other governments.
Delegates gather, on the day of negotiations on the COP28 draft agreement, during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Dec. 12, 2023. REUTERS
“This is a moment where multilateralism has actually come together and people have taken individual interests and tried to define the common good,” US climate envoy John Kerry said after the agreement was adopted.
The Alliance of Small Island Nations’ chief negotiator, Anne Rasmussen, criticized the agreement as not ambitious.
“We have made incremental progress over business as usual, when what we need is an exponential step change in our actions,” he said.
US Climate Envoy John Kerry attends a plenary session, after the release of a draft negotiated agreement, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP28 in Dubai Dec 13, 2023. REUTERS
But he did not formally object to the pact, and his speech was met with thunderous applause.
Danish Climate and Energy Minister Dan Jorgensen marveled at the state of the deal: “We are standing here in an oil country, surrounded by an oil country, and we made a decision saying let’s move away from oil and gas.”
EMISSION REDUCTION
The agreement calls for “a transition away from fossil fuels in the energy system, in a fair, orderly and equitable manner … so as to reach net zero by 2050 in line with science.”
It also calls for tripling global renewable energy capacity by 2030, accelerating efforts to reduce coal use, and accelerating technologies such as carbon capture and storage that can clean up hard-to-decarbonize industries.
A delegate reacts ahead of a plenary meeting at the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Dec. 13, 2023. REUTERS
A representative for Saudi Arabia welcomed the deal, saying it would help the world limit global warming to the 2.7 Fahrenheit target over pre-industrial times set in the 2015 Paris agreement, but reiterated the oil producer’s stance that tackling climate change is about reducing emissions.
“We must use every opportunity to reduce emissions regardless of the source,” he said.
Several other oil-producing nations, including summit host the UAE, have backed a role for carbon capture in the pact.
United Arab Emirates Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and President of COP28, Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, embraces UNFCCC Executive Secretary Simon Stiell after the draft agreement negotiations in Dubai on Dec. 13, 2023. REUTERS
Critics say the technology remains expensive and unproven at scale, and argue it’s a false flag to justify continued drilling.
Former US Vice President Al Gore also welcomed the agreement, but said: “The influence of the petrostates is still evident in the half-measures and loopholes included in the final agreement.”
Now that the agreement has been reached, the country is responsible for delivering through national policies and investments.
United Nations Climate Chief Simon Stiell speaks during a plenary session at the COP28 UN Climate Summit on Dec. 13, 2023, in Dubai. AP
In the United States, the world’s top oil and gas producer and the top emitter of greenhouse gases in history, a climate-conscious administration has struggled to pass legislation aligned with its climate pledges through a divided Congress.
US President Joe Biden scored a major victory on that front last year with the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which contained hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy subsidies.
Increasing public support for renewables and electric vehicles from Brussels to Beijing in recent years, along with improved technology, sliding costs and increased private investment have also fueled rapid growth in their use.
Even so, oil, gas and coal still account for about 80% of the world’s energy, and projections differ widely on when global demand will eventually peak.
Rachel Cleetus, policy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, praised the climate deal, but noted that it did not commit rich countries to offer more funding to help developing countries pay for the transition away from fossil fuels.
“Financial and equity allocations… are insufficient and must be improved in the future to ensure that low and middle income countries can switch to clean energy and bridge the energy poverty gap,” he said.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
