At the time of writing the debate was still going on at COP28, the UN World Climate Summit in Dubai, over the issue of scheduling a complete ban on the burning of fossil fuels.
The summit officially entered overtime on Tuesday at 11 am, but the release of the latest draft of the final agreement on Monday evening, 11 December, put paid to any hopes that Cop28 might finish on time on Tuesday with universal consensus.
The draft text had deleted a key sentence, which called for the ‘phase-out’ of fossil fuels, to fight global warming, a provision backed by more than 100 countries. But recommending a phase-out or phase–down of oil, coal and gas has been strongly opposed by oil-rich nations, including Saudi Arabia and Russia.
The deletion of the phrase caused immediate uproar from a large number of delegations and activists. By late Monday, small island states and many developing countries along with the UK, European Union, the US, Australia, Japan, Canada and Norway had spoken out against the deletion.
In the event, Saudi Arabia, the world’s leading exporter of oil, became the biggest obstacle to an agreement. The Saudi delegation has flatly opposed any language that would even mention fossil fuels, as well as a provision aimed at tripling global renewable energy capacity by 2030. Other countries, including the USA, China and India, have also raised concerns about more ambitious efforts to fight climate change, but their concerns are more about the pace of the ban and scheduling. The USA, EU, some small island nations and the UK were among those who criticised the draft published on Monday, saying that it did not go far enough. But Saudi Arabia has stood out as the most implacable opponent of any agreement on fossil fuels.
The Saudi opposition is significant because UN rules require that any agreement forged at the climate summit must be unanimously endorsed. Therefore any one of the 198 participating nations can veto an agreement.
Meanwhile the countries most at risk are calling the proposed Climate Agreement a ‘death warrant’. The outcome is that delegates from almost 200 countries were still working on salvaging a deal well into Tuesday night. A new draft deal was expected to be published overnight Tuesday, which negotiators will immediately scrutinise to see what has changed on fossil fuels.
Linkedin
