EU to push for fossil fuel phase out at COP28 summit – Reuters

EU member states will push for the global energy sector to be virtually fossil fuel-free "well ahead of 2050" in the upcoming COP28 summit.

PHOTO: UN’s COP28 climate summit will be held at Expo City in Dubai, UAE this year. Expo City Dubai

A draft of the EU's negotiating position at the UN COP28 summit obtained by Reuters suggests that EU nations will call for a global transition away from fossil fuels as "cost-effective" low- and zero-carbon alternatives become more readily available.

"The shift towards a climate-neutral economy will require the global phase-out of [unabated] fossil fuels and a peak in their consumption already in the near term," according to the EU's draft negotiations, cited by Reuters.

The word unabated refers to “fossil fuels burned without using technologies to capture the resulting CO2 emissions. The word was in brackets in the draft EU text, indicating that countries have not yet agreed on whether to include it,” Reuters explained.

This year, COP28 will take place in the UAE from 30 November to 12 December.

Meanwhile, last year’s COP27 ended in a divided verdict on phasing out fossil fuels, according to a British think tank Chatham House.

India pushed for a proposal to include all fossil fuels in a phase-out plan at the COP27 Egypt summit last November. This was backed by the US, EU, the UK and Colombia.

Kenya endorsed a more “managed” phase-out of fossil fuels. Major oil producers such as Canada and Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, pushed for the development of carbon capture and storage technologies rather than phasing out fossil fuels, Chatham House summarised.

However, Simon Stiell, the UN's climate change executive secretary, stressed that the creation of the "loss and damage" fund at COP27 last year reinforced the idea that there was "no room for backsliding.”

“It gives the key political signals that indicate the phasedown of all fossil fuels is happening,” he concluded.

By Konica Bhatt

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