Controversy is brewing at United Nations climate negotiations over whether countries should recommit to last year’s historic pledge to abandon fossil fuels.
European and American negotiators believe that the reaffirmation of the commitments agreed last year, including boosting efficiency and deploying renewable energy, is essential to avoid a setback in the global fight against climate change, according to people familiar with the matter.
Saudi Arabia is leading the resistance with a mix of delaying tactics and blocking maneuvers, they said. asking not to be quoted because the negotiations are not public.
The disagreement comes at a sensitive time at COP29 in Azerbaijan. Last year, the United Arab Emirates, hosting COP28, got Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing countries on board with the message to “get out” of fossil fuels in Dubai. Developed countries vulnerable to climate change consider it a setback that efforts in this regard are not redoubled.
A representative for Saudi Arabia declined to comment.
Disputes over the agenda at the start of this year’s COP arose from disagreements over whether and in what forum commitments to slash emissions made last year should be debated.
The main goal of this year’s negotiations is to replace the annual pledge of $100 billion in climate finance with a much larger amount to help poorer countries build green economies and resist global warming. It is estimated that the amount needed exceeds one billion dollars annually. USA and Europe want more countries to contribute to the financing, putting pressure on Saudi Arabia and other Gulf oil countries, responsible for a large part of the emissions.
Furthermore, countries are required to present ambitious new national climate strategies by next February to ensure they remain on the path set by the Paris Agreement. The historic 2015 agreement states that countries will try to keep global warming below 2ºC, and ideally 1.5ºC, before the end of the century.
Saudi Arabia has described last year’s agreement to abandon fossil fuels – the first reference to the main cause of climate change in three decades of UN talks – as a simple option to tackle rising greenhouse gas emissions. greenhouse. The kingdom is the world’s largest crude oil exporter, and is also building projects ecological while carrying out a multimillion-dollar plan to reduce its economy’s dependence on oil.
Including fossil fuel language in a COP agreement took 28 years and “we must ensure that this commitment is not lost in translation and is reinforced in all future decisions,” said Fiji’s Deputy Prime Minister Biman Prasad.
The COP29 talks are about to enter their second week, a period in which climate ministers provide the political impetus to resolve major issues that cannot be resolved at a more technical level. Pages of negotiating text must be reduced, brackets replaced, and bartered in closed-door meetings.
The Azerbaijani COP29 presidency will have to act as a neutral intermediary even though fuels Fossils make up 90% of the country’s exports and its leader Ilham Aliyev calls them a “gift from God.”
Donald Trump’s return to the US presidency and his commitment to boost the country’s energy production also hangs over any new commitment to move away from oil, gas and coal.
