Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: SEAN GALLUP / GETTY IMAGES EUROPE / GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP 22:38 p.m. on December 11, 2023

According to US envoy John Kerry, COP28 is the "last chance" to meet the 1.5°C limit on warming, the most ambitious goal of the Paris Agreement. The announcement came after the compromise proposed by the Emirati presidency of the climate conference, which was rejected by many countries.

The 28th United Nations climate conference in Dubai is "the last chance" to meet the 1.5°C limit on warming, the most ambitious goal of the Paris Agreement, US envoy John Kerry warned on Tuesday. "This is the last COP where we will have the chance to be able to keep 1.5°C alive," he said during a meeting with representatives of countries debating overnight the compromise proposed by the Emirati presidency of COP28, rejected by many countries for lack of a fossil fuel exit target. "Many of you have called on the world to largely phase out fossil fuels," and "that requires a decisive reduction in this decade," he said.

'A war for our survival'

The former U.S. secretary of state was speaking at a closed-door meeting, which a group of observers outside the room watched via live video recording. "I think most of you refuse to participate in a charade," he added at the meeting, which was convened hours after the draft agreement was published. Sultan Al Jaber, the captain of the oil industry who is presiding over COP28, has proposed a compromise text that leaves countries free to choose how they "reduce" fossil fuels. But the text does not set any historical objective of "exiting" oil, gas and coal, even though it was envisaged in previous versions.

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Fossil fuels are responsible for about two-thirds of the greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change, the impacts of which are increasingly threatening humanity. This absence has been widely criticized by Western countries, island states, several African and Latin American countries. It has drawn strong condemnation from environmental groups involved in the negotiations, which are supposed to conclude on Tuesday. "I don't think anyone here wants to be associated with a failure in exercising that responsibility. Few people in public life are made to make life-or-death choices in history," Kerry said. "This is a war for our survival," he said.