Dubai Climate Summit | A climate agreement is sought overnight: the bone of contention is fossil fuels

Climate emissions the fate of the fossil fuels that cause it strained the distance between the countries to the extreme at the UN climate meeting in Dubai, which stretched into overtime.

The climate agreement was still far away on Tuesday evening. The host country, the United Arab Emirates, issued a new reconciliation proposal, which the two countries are likely to negotiate through the night.

However, the parties will no longer meet at night for a plenary session, so the meeting and decisions will drag on until Wednesday. Originally, the meeting was supposed to end at noon on Tuesday.

Key ones themes in Dubai are reducing emissions, adapting to climate change and climate finance.

The most important document to be produced at the meeting is a global overview of the situation, which examines how countries can advance in their emission reductions towards the 1.5 degree goal outlined in Paris in 2015.

The goal is to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees by the end of the century compared to pre-industrial times. Without giving up fossil fuels – oil, coal, natural gas – it is very difficult to reach the limit considered critical.

The core issues are fossil fuels, the energy transition and the financing of climate measures. They are the subject of negotiations that have lasted into the night.

Finland negotiates as part of the EU. The Minister of Environment and Climate, who participated in the negotiations at the political level in Dubai Kai Mykkänen (kok), the EU is still pushing for the most ambitious goals to get rid of fossil fuels.

“The vast majority of countries are of the opinion that it is necessary and possible to get rid of fossil fuels in the next few decades,” Mykkänen said on Tuesday evening.

“The hot spots are now not only outside but also by negotiation,” Mykkänen described the atmosphere in Dubai, where the temperature was around 30 degrees.

The negotiations were in a heated phase on Tuesday, and an agreement was far away. At the heart of the controversy is thatwill it be possible to record anything about the decline of fossil fuels in the final statement of the meeting.

Strong at least the EU as well as Australia, Britain, Japan, the United States and the Pacific island states require alignment. They are pushing for an agreement that would say that the use of fossil fuels must be gradually stopped.

Instead, the host country, the United Arab Emirates, watered down the ambitious goal in the reconciliation proposal it announced on Monday evening.

The draft did not mention phasing out of fossil fuels at all, but was mainly a collection of methods that countries can implement to reduce climate emissions if they wish.

The expectations were high, so the disappointment was also great.

“The meeting got off to a good start when a decision was immediately made on the climate damage fund. Even though the atmosphere started to tighten in the last few days, the show was a shock to the overwhelming majority,” Mykkänen said.

“The reaction of the EU and a wide range of partners was clearly disappointing.”

The fossil fuel ban is primarily opposed by the oil exporting countries led by Saudi Arabia.

Meeting started fast. Already at the beginning, an agreement was reached on the fund for the compensation of climate damage and the funding to be put into it.

The United Arab Emirates committed to give one hundred million dollars to the fund, as did Germany.

The decision broke the “firewall” typical of the climate meeting between developing countries and industrialized countries. The fund is especially important for vulnerable countries, such as Pacific island nations.

However, the old land arrangements do not change quickly. There are still disagreements about, among other things, the sharing of responsibility.

The role of the solver is largely the countries of Africa and South America, Minister Mykkänen said.

African countries emphasize the responsibility of Western countries as the causes of climate change and need help with their own energy transition.

Agreed countries are of the opinion that curbing climate change is urgent. In addition, quick adaptation measures to the changes that have already taken place are needed.

The world has warmed 1.2 degrees since pre-industrial times, i.e. from 1850–1900. The year 2023 is becoming the warmest in the history of measurements.

Since the 1980s, Europe has been warming twice as fast as the rest of the world. All of Europe's sea areas have warmed, and they act like radiators around them.

The result has been sweltering heat, violent heat waves and drought. In places in southern Europe, there are even signs of desertification.

Climate change is becoming more visible every year, and its effects have only accelerated. Extreme weather phenomena have become more common and intensified.