Phasing out fossil fuels among options on table for COP28 climate talks (updated)

Fossil

05/12/2023 07:21

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      Draft COP28 text includes fossil fuel phase out
    

        * 
      Text adds other options, include no phase out deal
    

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      Fossil fuel CO2 emissions hit record high in 2023
    

  
 (Adds comments from energy executives, ministers throughout)
    By Kate Abnett, William James and Valerie Volcovici
       DUBAI, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Countries at the COP28 climate
conference are considering calling for a phase-out of fossil
fuels as part of the U.N. summit's final deal, according to a
draft negotiating text seen on Tuesday. 
    Research published on Tuesday showed global carbon dioxide
emissions from burning fossil fuels are set to hit a record high
this year, exacerbating climate change and fuelling more
destructive extreme weather.
    The draft of what could be the final agreement from COP28,
published by the U.N. climate body, kicks off negotiations
around what is considered the summit's defining issue: whether
countries will agree to eventually end the use of fossil fuels,
or fight to preserve a role for them.
    On the COP28 main stage, the chief executives of several
major energy firms sought to highlight their climate-friendly
credentials such as cutting the greenhouse gas methane. 
        "We are big guys and we can do big things. We can
deliver results and we will have to report them very soon," said
Jean Paul Prates, CEO of Brazil's state-run oil company
Petrobras. "We can do a lot, a lot faster and we can bring many
with us."
    "The energy transition will only be valid if it's a fair
transition," he added. 
    TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne said a transition away
from oil and gas would take a long time "so we need absolutely
to produce oil and gas in a different way by slashing down
emissions. And we can do it, we have the technology".
    "Of course it has a cost," he said, "but it's part of our
licence to operate, I would say, for the future."
    At least 2,400 fossil fuel lobbyists registered for this
year's summit, according to an analysis of U.N. registration
data published by Kick Big Polluters Out, an international
coalition of climate activist groups. 
    The lobbyists outnumbered the 1,609 delegates from the 10
most climate vulnerable countries combined, the group said. 
        
  
    NEGOTIATING TEXT
    The draft text for a COP28 final deal included three
options, which delegates from nearly 200 countries will now
consider.
    The first option in the draft is listed as "an orderly and
just phase-out of fossil fuels". In U.N. parlance, the word
"just" suggests wealthy nations with a long history of fossil
fuel burning would phase out faster than poorer countries that
are developing their resources now.
    The second option calls for "accelerating efforts towards
phasing out unabated fossil fuels". A third option would be to
avoid mentioning a fossil fuel phase-out.
    The United States, the 27 countries of the European Union
and climate-vulnerable small island states are pushing for a
fossil fuel phase-out to drive the deep CO2 emissions reductions
scientists say are needed this decade to avert disastrous
climate change.
    "We're not talking about turning the tap off overnight,"
German Climate Envoy Jennifer Morgan said. "What you're seeing
here is a real battle about what energy system of the future we
are going to build together."
    Major oil and gas producers including Saudi Arabia and
Russia have resisted past proposals for a phase-out. 
    Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman
told Bloomberg TV that his country would "absolutely not" agree
to a deal that calls for a phase-down of fossil fuels.
        David Waskow, director of World Resources Institute's
international climate initiative, said he does not think a COP28
outcome was possible without a clear mandate for moving away
from global reliance on oil, gas and coal.
    "I don't think we're going to leave Dubai without some clear
language and some clear direction on shifting away from fossil
fuels," he added.
    The draft text also includes language calling for the
scaling up for carbon capture technology - which is likely to
draw pushback from some countries worried that these nascent
technologies are being used to justify the continued use of
fossil fuels. 
            
  
        FOSSIL FUEL EMISSIONS RISING
    The Global Carbon Budget report, published on Tuesday said
that CO2 emissions from coal, oil and gas are still rising,
driven by India and China.
    Countries are expected to emit a total 36.8 billion metric
tons of CO2 from fossil fuels in 2023, a 1.1% increase from last
year, the report by scientists from more than 90 institutions
including the University of Exeter concluded. 
        The world's overall emissions for this year, which
reached a record high last year, have plateaued in 2023 due to a
slightly better use of land, including a decline in
deforestation. Emissions including land use are set to total
40.9 billion tons this year.
    China's fossil fuel emissions rose after it lifted COVID-19
restrictions, while India's rise was a result of power demand
growing faster than its renewable energy capacity, leaving
fossil fuels to make up the shortfall.  
    The year's emissions trajectory pulls the world further away
from preventing global warming exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius
above pre-industrial times.
    "It now looks inevitable we will overshoot the 1.5C target
of the Paris Agreement," said Exeter Professor Pierre
Friedlingstein, who led the research. 
    "Leaders meeting at COP28 will have to agree rapid cuts in
fossil fuel emissions even to keep the 2C target alive,"  he
said.
    
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 (Reporting by Kate Abnett and William James and Valerie
Volcovici; Additional reporting by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by
Katy Daigle and Miral Fahmy)
 ((Kate.Abnett@thomsonreuters.com;))