The Government takes sides in the semantic battle of COP28: eliminate fossil fuels, not reduce their use

For yet another year, global discussions on climate change at COP28 once again involve a semantic battle. If last year the discussion was about whether global warming had to be stopped at 2ºC or 1.5ºC, given that both figures appear in the historic Paris Agreement, in Dubai they are only talking about 1.5ºC, but The discrepancies have to do with the level of ambition necessary to not exceed it, specifically with regard to the use of fossil fuels. And in this tug-of-war, the Government has clearly positioned itself in favor of the more drastic position that scientists and environmentalists also defend to ensure that COP28 ends with a commitment to “eliminate them”, even if it is progressively, instead of the intention much laxity defended by the producing countries and the ubiquitous presence of companies that simply reduce them.

This debate, which is key, is settled in two very similar terms in English but with very different meanings and, according to delegations such as the Spanish one, with very different consequences, because whether it is possible to stop global warming in 1 depends precisely on it. 5ºC compared to pre-industrial levels.

Spain defends “phasing out”, that is, that COP28 ends with a commitment to “eliminate” the use of fossil fuels. At the Climate Summit two years ago, COP26 in Glasgow, this was decided for coal and Spain wants the Dubai event to also mark the way out for gas and oil.

Opposite is another concept, “phasing down”, which would be a commitment to reduce the use of fossil fuels but without advocating their elimination.. This is the position defended by the producing countries, including the host of COP28, the United Arab Emirates.. The president of the summit and Emirati Minister of Industry, Sultan al Jaber, shocked part of the audience a few days ago by ensuring that “there is no science, nor any scenario, that says that the progressive elimination of fossil fuels is the which will allow reaching 1.5°C”. A day later he had to reverse himself and stated in a meeting with journalists that the progressive exit from fossil fuels is “inevitable.”. There is also pessimism about whether they can reach ambitious commitments against climate change at a summit organized by a country with large oil reserves and with plans to take advantage of the event to close trade agreements with fifteen countries.

“Get rid of fossil fuels”

This Tuesday, the third vice president and minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, joined the unanimous cry with which a group of ministers from different regions responded “no!” to the question whether they would consider it a success if COP28 concluded with a commitment to reduce – “phashing down” – but not eliminate – “phasing out” – the use of fossil fuels.

“It is time to take steps forward and say that if we want to keep the 1.5ºC goal within reach we have to take a global stock and give guidance.”. What we have to do is get rid of fossil fuels and how to ensure energy efficiency and renewable energies,” said Ribera during the press conference he shared with ministers from Denmark, Colombia and Samoa to announce Spain's integration into the 'Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance' (BOGA), a union of governments that was created at COP26 in Glasgow to help other countries provide economic and labor alternatives in regions especially dependent on fuels fossils when they abandon them. This is what in Spain and the EU is called “just transition”.

just transition

This Tuesday, three new members joined it, Spain, Kenya and Samoa, bringing the total to 26 governments to promote actions such as the one announced at the Climate Summit, the delivery of one million dollars to support the efforts from Colombia and Kenya, the first two beneficiaries of a fund intended to help them manage in an orderly manner the transition from dependence on gas and oil to other renewable energies.

In line with the progress of the negotiations, Greenpeace insists that the objective should not only be to reach the maximum peak in fossil fuel consumption by 2030, but also to “begin its decline imminently” so that at the end of the decade a decrease is already noticeable. .