As the critical climate summit came to an end on Wednesday, countries still remained split over an agreement on 'phasing out' fossil fuel consumption. The United Nations-led summit known as COP28 was scheduled to end around midday on Tuesday after nearly two weeks of speeches, demonstrations and negotiations. But the climate talks continued overnight after Monday’s release of a draft agreement angered countries that insist on a commitment to rapid phase-out of coal, oil and gas.
Instead, the draft called for countries to reduce “consumption and production of fossil fuels, in a just, orderly and equitable manner” to achieve net zero by 2050.
Published by the United Arab Emirates, the draft agreement proposed various ways of cutting down on fossil fuels except referring to the use of the term ‘phase out’ of all fossil fuels which was used in the previous draft, fearing that it would offend a few countries such as India, China, Indonesia, who are major consumer of coal power energy. However, to tone down on the language, the draft calls for “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade”.
What is ‘unabated’ fossil fuel?
Although there is no one definition for what constitutes ‘unabated’ fossil fuel, it has been widely agreed upon that it refers to the use of coal, oil and gas without substantial efforts in place that would reduce the emissions produced throughout their life cycle to escape into the atmosphere.
The practice refers to the lack of inadequate technologies and weak policies on abatement that could fail to curb fossil fuel emissions, undermining global efforts to limit temperature rises.
Tina Stege, climate envoy for the Marshall Islands, ridiculed the document as “a meaningless wish list” that “questions the science” and said it doesn’t address the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) to stave off the worst effects of climate change. Earth is on its way to smashing the record for the hottest year, endangering human health and leading to ever more costly and deadly extreme weather.
The combustion of fossil fuels accounts for almost 80 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, with coal accounting for about 40 per cent and oil and gas combined accounting for the remainder. Fossil fuel consumption has to be reduced by 43 per cent by 2030 to bring down the global temperature by 1.5 degrees, several media reports estimate.
However, reality looks far away from what must be done to “phase out fossil fuel”. Emission from fossil fuels has been increasing every year with countries making little effort to bring about better renewable infrastructure.
While the topic of discussion was first taken up at COP26 in Glasgow, the debate around ‘phasing out’ fossil fuel was met with much resistance from several countries.
Coming to the just-concluded COP28 in Dubai, activists say that they feared that potential objections from major oil producers, such as Saudi Arabia, had watered down the initial text of the draft agreement. The head of OPEC, the powerful oil cartel, was reported to have written to member countries last week urging them to block any language to phase out or phase down fossil fuels, reports AP.
In this context, Outlook looks at the larger aspects of what further deepens the rapid climate change and how in the name of development, we are pushing nature to the edge, with no consequential explanation on either how to “phase out” or “phase down” any kind of damage to humanity.
