a coalition of countries calls for an “urgent exit” from fossil fuels

The call aims to accelerate action against climate change, five months before COP28. A coalition of 18 countries led by the Marshall Islands demanded, on Friday July 14, “an urgent exit from fossil fuels” after a climate summit in Brussels. “We must accelerate the global energy transition away from fossil fuels”the stated objective of the G7, and “we must reach the peak of greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 at the latest”says the text signed by ministers representing Germany, France, Senegal, Colombia and several island states.

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“This requires systemic transformations across all sectors, driven by an urgent exit from fossil fuels, beginning with a rapid decline in their production and use in this decade”they write in a final declaration of the 7th Ministerial Summit for Climate Action (MoCA) in Brussels.

A warning against carbon capture

These assertions draw in hollow the lines of negotiations which clash in the preparations for the UN climate conference in Dubai, where humanity must agree on the means to save the objective in danger of the agreement of Paris: containing global warming “well below 2°C” compared to the pre-industrial period and if possible at 1.5°C. “We need to phase out ‘unabated’ fossil fuels long before 2050”that is to say not backed by carbon capture or storage devices, European Environment Commissioner Frans Timmermans, also a signatory of this declaration, said on Tuesday during a speech in Spain.

What is meant by the English term “unabated” promises to be fiercely debated between now and COP28 and the eighteen ministers warn: “Abatement technologies must not be used as a green light for the continued expansion of fossil fuels (…) and should be recognized as having only one minimal role to play in decarbonization” Energy.