During COP27, various nations were calling to update the consensus reached at Glasgow’s COP26 to “phase down unabated coal power” by broadening the language to include the phasing down of all unabated fossil fuels.
The push was led by India, but as successive drafts of the COP27 cover decision were released, more countries added their voice to the call to include all fossil fuels. By the end, over 80 countries were supportive, including the UK, US, Canada, Australia, various small island states and Latin America.
However, as the summit text was finalised, wording on a fossil-fuel phase-down had yet to be included, and the text still only contains the existing call to reduce unabated coal. The final text also swaps a mention of renewable energy for language that refers to “low-emissions and renewable energy”, which commentators fear will be used to justify further natural gas development in place of a focus on renewables. It is understood that calls to phase out fossil fuels were blocked by oil-producing states incl. Iran, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. An entertaining Tweet from Carbon Brief* director Leo Hickman noted,
Word from inside the heads of delegation meeting at #COP27 is that the Saudis and Russians are still saying any inclusion in text about fossil fuels is a red line.
Russia: “Unacceptable…We cannot make the energy situation worse”
Presumably said without any sense of irony…
— Leo Hickman (@LeoHickman) November 19, 2022
Negotiators who had hoped to build upon the ambitions of COP26 were left disappointed. As President of the Glasgow COP26 Alok Sharma lamented,
“Emissions peaking before 2025, as the science tells us is necessary. Not in this text….
A clear commitment to phase out all fossil fuels. Not in this text. And the energy text, weakened, in the final minutes.”
The energy sector is key to limiting warming to 1.5⁰, and the window for achieving that target is closing rapidly. The UNEP Emissions Gap Report released at COP27 warns that based on national policies currently in place, emissions will dip less than 1% below 2019 levels by 2030. If we are to limit warming to 1.5⁰C, a 45% decrease is what’s required. A cynic would highlight that oil and gas industries had 636 official representatives at the Egypt conference – a rise of more than 25% on the number at COP26.
There is a clear link between loss and damage (discussed in our first COP27 blog), and fossil fuel phase out. As Colombian environment minister Susana Muhamad said, the two things need to happen together; “One without the other doesn’t make sense because otherwise we will be accepting catastrophe and not pushing forward towards avoiding the worst of climate change”.
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