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2023-07-15 00:04:00
With global temperatures rising to record levels last week, and countries experiencing floods, storms and heatwaves destroying crops, the world is still off track to achieve its climate goals. This prompted some countries to call for a commitment in “Cop 28” to gradually abandon fossil fuels.
An international coalition that includes European countries and others vulnerable to climate change confirmed Friday that the world needs to “urgently” abandon fossil fuels as part of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and control global warming.
In a statement issued at the conclusion of climate talks in Brussels, the High Ambition Coalition said that the 28th session of the Conference of the Parties on Climate (COP28), scheduled for the end of the year, should pave the way for “an urgent and just transition to renewable energy sources, A more climate resilient world, and climate justice for all.
He called for greenhouse gas emissions to peak by 2025, at the latest and to reduce them by 43 percent by 2030 compared to 2019 levels, in line with recent recommendations by UN climate experts.
“This requires systemic shifts in all sectors, driven by an urgent phase-out of fossil fuels, starting with a rapid reduction in fossil fuel production and use during this decade,” the coalition added. The statement comes in the wake of a ministerial summit in Belgium, during which the head of “COP 28” Sultan Al-Jaber set the priorities for the conference hosted by Dubai.
The world is still far from the right track to achieve its climate goals, which prompted some countries to commit themselves in “Cop 28” to the gradual abandonment of fossil fuels that cause the planet’s temperature to rise.
concrete goals
Sultan Al Jaber, who is also the UAE Minister of Industry and head of the oil company “ADNOC”, expects fossil fuels to continue to play a role, albeit limited and accompanied by the use of controversial carbon capture technologies to “mitigate” or neutralize emissions.
Al-Jaber added Thursday that reducing the use of fossil fuels is “inevitable” and “essential”, but he did not set a time frame for that. And he continued in an interview with Agence France-Presse: “I do not have a magic wand” to be able to determine when this will take place.
The Coalition for High Ambition has raised concerns regarding reliance on carbon capture and storage technologies, such as those that trap emissions from power plants and permanently store them underground, which have not yet been widely used.
In his statement, he said, “Pollution reduction technologies should not be used to give a green light to the continued expansion of fossil fuels, but should be viewed in the context of steps to phase out the use of fossil fuels.” The countries added that these technologies have a “minor role” in decarbonising the sector. energy.
Among the concrete goals suggested by Sultan Al-Jaber are COP28 priorities to triple the world’s renewable energy capacity and double energy efficiency improvements, to be achieved by 2030.
This is in line with the recommendations of the International Energy Agency to achieve the Paris Agreement target of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrial era.
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