• Climate crisis: The draft COP28 agreement proposes to "reduce" the production and consumption of fossil fuels by 2050 but avoids the term "phase-out"
  • COP28 UN warns against "landmines" to "end the fossil fuel era"

Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber will present delegates from 195 countries with a new proposal to try to close COP28 in Dubai with an agreement, following the majority rejection of the draft presented on Monday that proposed "reducing the production and consumption of fossil fuels" (avoiding the use of the word "eliminate" or "phase out").

Harsh criticism from the EU, which called the text "unacceptable and insufficient", was joined by a large group of countries led by the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Japan.

"We will not sign a text that would be a death knell for island countries," said Australia's climate minister, Chris Bowen, echoing statements by Cedric Schuster, representing Samoa.

Bowen noted that there are "positive elements" in the first draft, but cautioned that the text is "very weak" and that "a clearer signal" is needed about the future of fossil fuels. "The summit must conclude with an outcome that we are proud of and that is a big change," the Australian minister stressed.

COP28 should conclude on Tuesday, but everything points to an extension at least until the next day, as is usual at climate summits.

Negotiations between the heads of delegations lasted until 28 a.m. on Tuesday. A meeting was convened early in the morning to coordinate the EU's response, joined by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who emphasised on his return to Dubai that COP<> should mark "the end of the fossil fuel era".

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Climate crisis.

COP28 sinks its teeth into food: "We must transform the way we eat to avoid catastrophic climate change"

  • Written by: CARLOS FRESNEDA (Special Envoy)Dubai

COP28 sinks its teeth into food: "We must transform the way we eat to avoid catastrophic climate change"

CLIMATE SUMMIT.

Al Jaber, the Sultan of oil presiding over COP28: "We will not arrive in time with the path we are on"

  • Written by: CARLOS FRESNEDA (Correspondent)London

Al Jaber, the Sultan of oil presiding over COP28: "We will not arrive in time with the path we are on"

The draft presented by Al Jaber proposes, however, to reduce" its production and consumption "in a fair, orderly and equitable manner" to achieve emissions neutrality by 2050 or earlier, and "in line with science". Although it is the first time fossil fuels have been mentioned in a COP agreement, the text was criticized as too weak for avoiding the word "phase-out" at all costs.

"We have made progress, but we still have a long way to go," Al Jaber acknowledged after the withering reaction of the European delegations and island countries. "I want you to achieve the highest ambition in the language of fossil fuels," he said in a message to delegates from more than 190 countries negotiating the final text. "My door is still open for all of you; Now we must work much faster and smarter – we have no choice but to work together."

The Third Vice-President and Minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, did not hide her frustration: "There are elements that are totally unacceptable (...) This is not the tipping point the planet needs to reach towards phasing out fossil fuels in this critical decade."

Ribera appeared before the media in the company of the European Union's commissioner for climate change, Wopke Hoekstra. Despite the "shared disappointment, both assured that the EU's strategy will not initially be to get up from the table, but to introduce the changes they consider necessary in the final stretch of the negotiations.

"We start this conference with good news on loss and damage financing and we need to end it with what the world needs in this critical decade," warned Teresa Ribera in the final sprint of the negotiations, stressing the need to strengthen the text in the three basic points (mitigation, adaptation and financing) and with the aim of not exceeding the limit of a 1.5 degree increase in temperatures.

  • Climate change
  • Climate Summit