Over in the UAE.
Participants at COP28 are hammering out details of a draft deal to conclude this year’s global summit on climate action which as expected continues to fuel fierce debate.
Lee Eun-jin explains.
On Monday, a new draft of the COP28 agreement was published by the summit president, the United Arab Emirates.
It proposed various options and called for reducing the production and consumption of fossil fuels, but the draft did not use the words “phase out” as seen in previous agreements.
An earlier draft on Friday had included “phase out”, something climate campaigners, low-lying island states, and the European Union have been advocating for.
But the latest draft calls for reducing the consumption and production of fossil fuels in “a just, orderly and equitable manner so as to achieve net zero by, before, or around 2050 in keeping with the science.”
It also provides eight options that countries could use to cut emissions including tripling renewable energy capacity by 2030 and scaling up technologies to capture CO2 emissions.
And, on the conference’s final day on Tuesday, this year’s president emphasized that there is still much to do and no time to waste.
“We must still close many gaps. We don’t have time to waste. We must deliver an outcome that respects the science and that keeps 1.5 within reach.”
A new draft document is expected early on Tuesday, which would leave little time for further disagreement ahead of the scheduled close of the conference at 11 AM local time.
Deals at UN climate summits must be passed by consensus by the nearly 200 countries present.
According to Reuters, sources familiar with the discussions said the United Arab Emirates had come under pressure from Saudi Arabia to drop any mention of fossil fuels from the text.
Saudi Arabia is the de facto leader of the OPEC oil producers’ group, of which the UAE is a member.
Despite the rapid growth of renewable energy use, around 80% of the world’s energy is produced using fossil fuels.
Lee Eunjin, Arirang News.
source : https://www.arirang.com/news/view?id=263080
