As COP28 runs into overtime, with no new draft text on the global stocktake emerging from the presidency, climate experts have drawn up a wish list of key elements they said were missing from the language. These elements, they said, needed further strengthening to crack down on fossil fuels and hold richer nations accountable.
Speaking at the climate summit, Brandon Wu, Director of Policy and Campaigns at Action Aid USA, stressed the need for equity and support. “What is extremely clear is the stronger the language on equity and climate finance, the stronger language we will get on a phase out of fossil fuels. Both are interlinked.”
He continued: “The reason for this is that many developing countries simply do not have the resources to a fund a fossil fuel phase out without international support. This is a fundamental dynamic at the negotiations and a major sticking point across all negotiating tracks.
“This results in the failure to trust that climate finance is coming. What we need really strong text that provides assurance that developed countries will act first to reduce emissions. There needs to real strong language that the phase out will happen with financial support.”
Climate campaigner Catherine Abreu said COP28 simply could not have a successful outcome for its Loss and Damage Fund if the phase out of fossil fuels was not mentioned in the text.
“We need a clear call for a phase out of fossil fuels in the text. This is a package, not a menu. What we have laid out in the draft, is a salad of options. We need to take a step towards the phasing out of fossil fuels and replacing it with renewables.”
Abreu also mentioned that “dangerous distractions” such as carbon capture and storage should be left out of the text.
Campaigner Lorraine Chiponda from Don’t Gas Africa talked on the perspective of developing nations: “There has been a systematic failure to include communities in Africa, those in the Global South who have stood on the frontlines of the climate crisis. What hurts is to hear African negotiators push to remove the phase out language betrays everyone on the frontlines.”
She stated that energy access was of utmost importance to important to Africa with 600 million people living in energy poverty. “African negotiators need to push for renewable energy systems and climate finance, and it is the moral obligation of rich countries to pay up after they have depleted the carbon space.”
Bindu.rai@lseg.com
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