The world needs to phase out fossil fuels if it wants to curb global warming, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Executive Secretary Simon Stiell said, adding that the idea might not make it onto the agenda of “make or break” international climate negotiations in the autumn.
A phase out of heat-trapping fossil fuels “is something that is at [the] top of every discussion or most discussions that are taking place,” Stiell said in an interview on Saturday.
“It is an issue that has global attention. How that translates into an agenda item and a [climate talks] outcome, we will see,” he said.
Photo: AP
Stiell said he could not promise that it would get a spot on the agenda in COP28 climate talks in Dubai later this year.
That agenda decision is up to the president of the negotiations, set to be state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company chief executive officer Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, he said.
United Arab Emirates (UAE) naming al-Jaber the head of the climate conference has drawn fierce opposition from lawmakers in Europe and the US, as well as environmental advocates.
UAE officials said they want game-changing results in the climate talks, and that al-Jaber runs a large renewable energy company.
At climate talks last year, a proposal by India to phase out all fossil fuels, supported by the US and many European nations, never got on the agenda. What gets discussed is decided by the COP president, who last year was Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry.
When asked if officials in Egypt, which is a natural gas-exporting country, kept the concept off the agenda, Stiell said that he could not comment except to say that “it’s within their purview.”
An engineer-turned government official and diplomat, Stiell walked a fine line between talking about the importance of a fossil fuel phase out and supporting the UN process that has put countries that export oil and natural gas in charge of negotiations about global warming for two consecutive years.
About 94 percent of the heat-trapping carbon dioxide human industrial activity put in the air last year was from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, Global Carbon Project scientists who monitor emissions said.
Al-Jaber’s company has the capacity to produce 2 million barrels of oil and 198 million cubic meters of natural gas per day, and it said it plans to increase that drilling to 5 million barrels per day by 2027.
Getting a fossil fuel phase out on the agenda this year depends on the conference president al-Jaber and on whether there is enough pressure from other nations, Stiell said.
“Where better to have a discussion ... than in a region where fossil fuels is at the center of their economy?” Stiell asked.
He said the real issue is getting something done, not putting it on the agenda.
In public appearances, al-Jaber has emphasized being “laser-focused on phasing out fossil fuel emissions,” not necessarily the fuels themselves, by promoting carbon capture and removal of the pollutant from the air.
Stiell dismissed the idea that carbon removal can be a short-term solution.
“Right now, in this critical decade of action to achieve those deep reductions, the science tells us it can only be achieved through the reduced use, significantly reduced use, of all fossil fuels,” Stiell said.
This year would be critical, because it is the first global assessment of where the world is in its efforts to reduce carbon emissions.
To reach the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to 1.5°C since pre-industrial levels, greenhouse gas pollution needs to be cut in half by 2030, he said.
“We know we are a long way from where we need to be,” Stiell said.
This year’s meetings would set up a round of pledges for even tighter emissions cuts by telling nations the stark truth of how bad the situation is, Stiell said.
“It’s lack of implementation,” Stiell said. “I don’t believe it is the lack of knowledge. There’s been report after report after report that all say the same thing, all with increasing urgency.”
After less than a year on the job, but years as a national negotiator, Stiell said he has “gone beyond frustration. What drives me is a desire to make a difference.”
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