COP28 | A global agreement to phase out fossil fuels on the table

Will COP28, which is being held in the United Arab Emirates, an oil country, be the one that allows for an agreement to formalize the need to move away from fossil fuels? This second day was full of twists and turns in Dubai, where the oil and gas industry is more present than ever.

Ottawa could announce its plan to reduce emissions from the oil sector

Ottawa could well announce during COP28 its framework aimed at capping greenhouse gas emissions from the oil and gas sector in Canada. At a press conference in Dubai on Friday, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Steven Guilbeault, indicated “that this will be done in the very, very near future”. Mr. Guilbeault’s office clarified The Press that there was a good chance that this announcement would be made before the end of the COP, which should in principle end on December 12. Remember that Justin Trudeau committed in 2021, at COP26, to imposing a cap on these emissions. Ottawa has already specified that it wants to reduce these emissions by 31% by 2030, compared to the 2005 level, but has still not tabled its draft regulation on this subject.

Reduce fossil fuels or get out of them?

The world must reduce its use, or even move away from fossil fuels, proposes a first version of a draft agreement, unveiled Friday at COP28. The text will be fiercely debated by negotiators from nearly 200 countries present in Dubai. Countries must prepare a “reduction/exit of fossil fuels”, proposes the text prepared by the United Kingdom and Singapore. Discussions will focus in particular on the choice of the words “reduction” (down phase in English) or “exit” (phase out), more restrictive. Like an elephant in the room, the issue of fossil fuels has never before been mentioned so directly in a draft international climate agreement. Recall that the president of COP28, Ahmed Al-Jaber, affirmed Thursday that it was necessary to mention “the role of fossil fuels” in the final agreement.

“Never been so close to a global agreement”

“The global assessment should clearly call for an exit and not a reduction of all fossil fuels,” the vice-president of the Global Citizen association, Friederike Röder, told Agence France-Presse. According to the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations, a French think tank, [ce projet] “is more ambitious than anything put on the table during COP27”. “COP28 is a great paradox. It is both a COP where the capture of the process by the fossil industry is more visible than ever, and a COP where we have never been so close to a global agreement on the need to phase out energy. fossils. This paradox could very well be a historical inflection point,” summarized Caroline Brouillette, general director of the Climate Action Network in Canada.

France calls on G7 to end coal

French President Emmanuel Macron asked G7 countries on Friday to “commit to ending coal” before 2030 to “set an example”. The continuation of investments in favor of coal throughout the world is “a real absurdity” with regard to the objective of combating global warming, and “therefore we must initiate an absolute shift” to get out of it, argued the French president to Dubai. “The G7 countries must set an example and commit to putting an end to coal in their countries before others, that is to say before 2030,” he said, recalling France’s commitment. to close its last coal-fired power plant “by 2027”.

An agreement on agriculture

The impacts of agriculture on the climate will be taken into greater account by more than 130 countries around the world. Agriculture and food production are responsible for a third of human-caused greenhouse gases on a global scale. Led by the United States and China, 134 countries adopted a declaration pledging to strengthen their efforts to integrate food systems into their plans to reduce GHG emissions. These 134 nations produce 70% of the food consumed in the world and release three-quarters of the emissions associated with food.

Canada will compensate vulnerable countries

Canada will release $16 million for the new global fund intended to finance losses and damages associated with climate change. This fund will be used by the most vulnerable countries which have been asking for aid for several years. Minister Steven Guilbeault made the announcement Friday in Dubai. From the first day of the event, Thursday, member countries announced an agreement to create this fund. The United Arab Emirates, which is hosting the COP, has pledged US$100 million to the fund and Germany has also promised to provide US$100 million.

With Agence France-Presse