Nations strike deal at COP28 to transition away from fossil fuels
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[December 13, 2023]
By Valerie Volcovici, Gloria Dickie and William James
DUBAI (Reuters) -Representatives from nearly 200 countries agreed at the
COP28 climate summit on Wednesday to begin reducing global consumption
of fossil fuels to avert the worst of climate change, a first of its
kind deal signaling the eventual end of the oil age.
The deal struck in Dubai after two weeks of hard-fought negotiations was
meant to send a powerful signal to investors and policy-makers that the
world is united in its desire to break with fossil fuels, something
scientists say is the last best hope to stave off climate catastrophe.
COP28 President Sultan Al Jaber called the deal "historic" but added
that its true success would be in its implementation.
"We are what we do, not what we say," he told the crowded plenary at the
summit. "We must take the steps necessary to turn this agreement into
tangible actions."
Several countries cheered the deal for accomplishing something elusive
in decades of climate talks.
"It is the first time that the world unites around such a clear text on
the need to transition away from fossil fuels," said Norway Minister of
Foreign Affairs Espen Barth Eide.
More than 100 countries had lobbied hard for strong language in the
COP28 agreement to "phase out" oil, gas and coal use, but came up
against powerful opposition from the Saudi Arabia-led oil producer group
OPEC, which argued that the world can slash emissions without shunning
specific fuels.
That battle pushed the summit a full day into overtime on Wednesday, and
had some observers worried the negotiations would end at an impasse.
Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries control
nearly 80% of the world's proven oil reserves along with about a third
of global oil output, and their governments rely heavily on those
revenues.
Small climate-vulnerable island states, meanwhile, were among the most
vocal supporters of language to phase out fossil fuels and had the
backing of huge oil and gas producers such as the United States, Canada
and Norway, along with the EU bloc and scores of other governments.
"This is a moment where multilateralism has actually come together and
people have taken individual interests and attempted to define the
common good," U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said after the deal was
adopted.
The lead negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States, Anne
Rasmussen, criticized the deal as unambitious.
"We have made an incremental advancement over business as usual, when
what we really need is an exponential step change in our actions," she
said.
But she did not formally object to the pact, and her speech drew a
standing ovation.
Danish Minister for Climate and Energy Dan Jorgensen marveled at the
circumstances of the deal: "We're standing here in an oil country,
surrounded by oil countries, and we made the decision saying let's move
away from oil and gas."
EMISSIONS REDUCTION
The deal calls for "transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy
systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner ... so as to achieve
net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science."
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A Saudi Arabian delegate speaks to another delegate ahead of the
plenary meeting, after a draft of a negotiation deal was released,
at the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP28 in Dubai,
United Arab Emirates, December 13, 2023. REUTERS/Amr Alfiky
It also calls for a tripling of renewable energy capacity globally
by 2030, speeding up efforts to reduce coal use, and accelerating
technologies such as carbon capture and storage that can clean up
hard-to-decarbonize industries.
A representative for Saudi Arabia welcomed the deal, saying it would
help the world limit global warming to the targeted 1.5 degrees
Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial times set in the 2015
Paris deal, but repeated the oil producer's stance that tackling
climate change was about reducing emissions.
"We must use every opportunity to reduce emissions regardless of the
source," he said.
Several other oil producer countries, including the summit host UAE,
had advocated for a role for carbon capture in the pact. Critics say
the technology remains expensive and unproven at scale, and argue it
is a false flag to justify continued drilling.
Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore also welcomed the deal, but said:
"The influence of petrostates is still evident in the half measures
and loopholes included in the final agreement."
Now that the deal is struck, countries are responsible for
delivering through national policies and investments.
In the United States, the world’s top producer of oil and gas and
the top historical emitter of greenhouse gases, climate-conscious
administrations have struggled to pass laws aligned with their
climate vows through a divided Congress.
U.S. President Joe Biden scored a major victory on that front last
year with passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which contained
hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy subsidies.
Mounting public support for renewables and electric vehicles from
Brussels to Beijing in recent years, along with improving
technology, sliding costs, and rising private investment have also
driven rapid growth in their deployments.
Even so, oil, gas, and coal still account for about 80% of the
world's energy, and projections vary widely about when global demand
will finally hit its peak.
Rachel Cleetus, policy director at the Union of Concerned
Scientists, praised the climate deal, but noted that it does not
commit rich countries to offer more financing to help developing
countries pay for the transition away from fossil fuels.
"The finance and equity provisions... are seriously insufficient and
must be improved in the time ahead in order to ensure low- and
middle-income countries can transition to clean energy and close the
energy poverty gap," she said.
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(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici, Kate Abnett, Jake Spring, Gloria
Dickie, Elizabeth Piper, David Stanway; Editing by Richard Valdmanis,
Katy Daigle, Gerry Doyle and Sharon Singleton)
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