COP28: Omission of fossil fuel "phase out" from the draft text prompts global criticism
The draft text of the COP28 global stocktake has faced flak from the international community for omitting any mention of fossil fuel phase-out.
PHOTO: Emissions from a ship running on fossil diesel. Getty Images
The hosting of COP28 in an oil-producing nation, led by the UAE's state-owned oil giant Abu Dhabi National Oil Corporation (ADNOC), did indeed stir controversy due to the alleged OPEC letter debacle. Despite this, there was hope that the summit would deliver on its promises.
Nevertheless, after two weeks of discussions and dialogue, the tone-deaf summit appears to have missed the most critical point: a lack of focus on fossil fuel phaseout could be a major setback in climate change mitigation.
“COP28 is now on the verge of complete failure,” former US Vice President and climate advocate Al Gore says in a social media post. “The world desperately needs to phase out fossil fuels as quickly as possible, but this obsequious draft reads as if OPEC dictated it word for word. It is even worse than many had feared.”
The draft text of the global stocktake, released by the UN's climate body, completely ignored fossil fuel elimination and instead proposed capping emissions by “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 in keeping with the science.”
Its watered-down language and lack of ambition have frustrated several global leaders and climate advocates.
“The text is a monument of schizophrenia: It first acknowledges, recognises, or notes the numerous and gigantic gaps between what is needed and what has been delivered up to now… And then, after such a clear diagnosis, it decides almost NOTHING,” writes Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, former vice chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The summit was seen by many as a last-ditch effort to take immediate action to reduce global emissions and align the globe with the Paris Agreement goal.
However, possible inaction from global leaders to end fossil fuel use disappointed those hoping for meaningful progress, especially climate-vulnerable island states and developing nations.
“COP28 teeters on the brink of failure as the legacy which it promised to leave for SIDS is obscured in language that fails to address fossil fuel phaseout in a meaningful way,” Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) said.
“The Republic of the Marshall Islands did not come here to sign our death warrant,” John Silk, natural resources minister of the Republic of the Marshall Islands said in a statement, as quoted in The New York Times. Marshall Islands will not accept a COP28 outcome that does not refocus the world on a 1.5°C world, he argued. “What we have seen today is unacceptable. We will not go silently to our watery graves.”
“We cannot accept latest [global stocktake] GST text,” Madeleine Diouf Sarr, head of climate change in Senegal’s environment ministry and Chair of the Least Developed Countries Group at the UN's climate negotiations, reaffirmed.
“Need way forward that ensures we meet 1.5C-scaled up climate finance [especially] esp. for adaptation & phasing out fossil fuels with differentiation. This text doesn’t set clear pathway for either. GST meant to ratchet ambition, where is the ambition?” she asks.
Other proponents of "phasing out" fossil fuels, including the UK, EU and the US have also condemned the draft text in its current form, urging its revision as soon as possible.
“It’s not a good text. It’s not a balanced text. It’s not ambitious enough. It doesn’t deliver the kind of language we need to phase out fossil fuels. It won’t be accepted,” Ireland’s climate and environment minister, Eamon Ryan argues.
“The text as it now stands is disappointing. It is insufficient and not adequate to address the problem we are here to tackle. The science is clear: we need to phase out fossil fuels. We have to continue the conversation,” European Commissioner for Climate Action, Wopke Hoekstra has written.
UK’s climate minister Graham Stuart feels the draft “does not go far enough” for climate action. Meanwhile, US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry noted that “the mitigation section, including the issue of fossil fuels, needs to be substantially strengthened, and the finance section contains inaccuracies that must be fixed.”
Western leaders have promised to keep pushing for an ambitious outcome that keeps 1.5 degrees within reach. However, time is running out to make significant progress.
“In order to prevent COP28 from being the most embarrassing and dismal failure in 28 years of international climate negotiations, the final text must include clear language on phasing out fossil fuels,” Al Gore warns.
By Konica Bhatt
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