The first drafts or informal notes from the facilitators, in charge of bringing together the positions between the Parties and speeding up the negotiated process, have begun to arrive slowly, the official page of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This Tuesday the long-awaited text of the global stocktake (Global Stoctake in English) was published, putting on the table the words most anticipated by climate activists: “end of fossil fuels.”
The draft offers three options to the parties. The first is “an orderly and fair phase-out of fossil fuels,” where “fair” means, in climate summit parlance, that rich nations with a long history of burning fossil fuels would withdraw faster than poor nations. The second option advocates “accelerating efforts toward phasing out fossil fuels,” while the latter avoids mentioning phasing out fossil fuels. “There is no more time,” said Chiara Martinelli, European director of the Climate Action Network (CAN). “We need a phase-out of all fossil fuels included in the final COP decision,” she added.
This is a first text of which many changes are expected due to the first reactions of some of the Parties. “We are not talking about turning off the tap overnight,” said Jennifer Morgan, Special Envoy for International Climate Action at the German Federal Foreign Office. Others are more forceful, especially oil-producing countries.
“I would not accept it at all,” said Saudi Arabia’s energy minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman. A phrase that Russia, for example, and the rest of the fossil fuel producing states also sign. A confrontation that makes it difficult to achieve an ambitious agreement.
Spain takes sides
Opposite, the High Ambition Coalition, which brings together almost thirty States, which have taken part and demanded the end of fossil fuels. «We are here to fulfill what we agreed to do in 2015. We should not exceed 1.5 degrees above the average pre-industrial temperature. And, very sincerely, it is impossible, impossible to do it without a sharp decrease in the consumption of fossil fuels,” said Teresa Ribera, third vice president of the Government and minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, last Monday.
The alliance promoted by the Republic of the Marshall Islands in 2014 works on the highest ambition in each of the climate summits to achieve the decarbonization of economies and reduce the impacts of climate change. At COP-27, this organization pushed for the end of the fossil fuel era and for a Loss and Damage Fund. Now it is present in Dubai (United Arab Emirates) with a declaration signed by 26 heads of state, prime ministers or presidents; among which is Pedro Sánchez, or what is the same 13% of the total. “Systemic transformations are needed in all economic sectors, driven by a global elimination of fossil fuels,” states the letter dated early November.
A complicated task despite the intentions of the COP28 presidency headed by Sultan Al-Yaber. “Ending fossil fuels is essential and that transition has to be clear, responsible and organized,” he said this Monday.
Little ambition
So far, on only two occasions after the Paris Agreement has the concept of fossil fuels appeared in the final text of climate summits. The first of them was at COP26 held in Glasgow (United Kingdom) and the following year in Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt).
In that year, twenty countries signed the Glasgow Declaration in which they committed to ending new direct public financing for fossil fuel projects abroad by the end of 2022. An updated analysis by the organization Oil Change International shows that six of these signatories, including the United States, Germany, Italy and Japan, have failed to fulfill their promise to end international public financing of these fuels by the end of 2022.
In total, they have approved at least 5 billion euros this year. “All financial flows must contribute to a more just and equitable world, helping countries develop in a way that aligns with 1.5 degrees,” says the international coalition.
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