COP28 reaches a “moment of crisis” after a “totally unacceptable” draft agreement

The summit of climate of the United Nations (COP28) arrived this Monday at his “moment of crisis” and before a final agreement can be discussed after the meeting presidency published a latest draft of the Global Balance “totally unacceptable” for some parts, since there is no mention of ending the fossil fuels.

The publication of the long-awaited document, the basis on which the negotiations will be developed in the last part of the meeting that is scheduled to end in less than 24 hours, unleashed an immediate wave of rejection and criticism from both delegates with voice and vote in the meeting – where decisions are made unanimously – and environmental groups.

Totally unacceptable

“Totally unacceptable” and “disappointing” were the words of the European Union (EU), which promised to continue fighting until the end of fossil fuels in energy is included in the document.

This was stated by the European Commissioner for Climate Action, Wopke Hoekstra, and the voice at the summit of the Presidency of the Council of the EU, the Minister for the Spanish Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, who predicted it would be difficult “to reach an agreement tomorrow at 11 in the morning” as the COP28 presidency wants.

Ribera also indicated that there are still “hours or days” to reach an agreement.

That same tone was used by a non-European negotiating source who told EFE that the draft is ““a moment of crisis” what augurs “hours of fighting”.

Colombia, whose Environment Minister Susana Muhamad has played a leading role throughout COP28 with her ambitious climate proposals, harshly criticized the draft as a “win-win” document.fossil capital”.

Environmentalists also lamented the “substantial reduction” of the climate ambition of the document, a “decaffeinated version” of everything that had been seen so far.

None of the analysts, environmentalists and negotiators consulted by EFE believe that the text can go ahead as drafted, since to be adopted it must have the support of the 198 countries represented at COP28, where decisions are made by consensus.

Draft

The draft includes, among several options, a “reduction in production and consumption” of fossil fuels to achieve the goal of being net zero emissions by 2050 or sooner, following the indications of science, rather than phasing them out gradually.

It also urges the parties to rapidly reduce coal without mitigation systems and to place limits on the granting of authorizations for new electricity generation plants based on this fossil fuel.

The text recognizes the need to accelerate an energy transition “sustainable, affordable and inclusive” taking into account the different starting points and circumstances of each country, and guaranteeing security of supply, sustainable development, poverty eradication and international cooperation.

And it recognizes nuclear energy as a technological option to promote to reduce polluting emissions.

None of the options includes the desired expression “phase out” (elimination) of fossil fuels and enables the use of all those based on CO2 capture and storage technologies that are harshly criticized by scientists because they do not avoid emissions to the atmosphere. atmosphere.

COP28 is called to close what is known as the Global Balance, the first review process of what has been achieved since the Paris Agreement and in which the parties should agree on the next steps to follow to guarantee the planet’s climate security.

Sultan al Jaber, the president of COP28, was apparently the only one who considered the document positive, which he considered as “a huge step forward” to obtain “the ambitions” of the meeting.

Just minutes after its dissemination, Al Yaber noted in a message that with the draft “Progress has been made, but there is still much to do” in order to obtain a satisfactory result.

Immediately after publishing the draft, Al Jaber began a plenary session of the summit and there indicated that the negotiators must be “ambitious” and pointed precisely to “fossil fuel language” as an objective to be resolved in order to obtain a final document.