12/12/23

ASIA: Saudi-Led Fight Against COP28 Deal 'Outrageous', Shows 'Panic' Officials Say

As published on: news.slashdot.org, Monday 11 December, 2023.

"U.S. lawmakers and ministers from around the world blasted a letter that emerged Friday night, warning OPEC member states to resist calls at the COP28 climate summit for a fossil fuel phase-out," reports Axios:
The letter has shaken up the climate talks in a critical phase, as nations spar over whether to include historic language in an emerging climate agreement that calls for a phase-out of fossil fuels... "OPEC's letter is outrageous. OPEC wants to talk about emissions, but not the source of the emissions," said Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), who is visiting COP28 as part of a congressional delegation. "It would be like the tobacco industry saying you can talk about lung cancer, but you can't talk about cigarettes. It's outrageous, it's preposterous," he told Axios. "The extent to which they had the nerve to write such a preposterous letter, just shows you how much in denial they still are." The letter, reportedly sent by the OPEC secretary general to all 13 member nations and 10 members of the larger OPEC+ coalition on Dec. 6, warned of the possibility of a tipping point toward a COP28 outcome containing language calling for a phase-out of fossil fuels.

Reuters reports that "It was the first time OPEC's Secretariat has intervened in the U.N. climate talks with such a letter, according to Alden Meyer of the E3G climate change think tank. 'It indicates a whiff of panic,' he said."

More from Politico:
The full-scale resistance that oil-exporting countries are mounting against a COP28 deal to end fossil fuel use is a sign of "panic," said Germany's climate envoy... [T]o Jennifer Morgan, Germany's special envoy for international climate action, the letter was also a rare admission from the oil industry that these climate talks pose an existential threat to its business model...

As the talks speed toward a close, officials are working to craft language that can get support from the nearly 200 countries participating in the process. It will be up to the UAE presidency of COP28 to attempt to find consensus. Draft text over the weekend offered several options for a pledge to "phase out" fossil fuels, all with various caveats. But several people close to the talks said that Saudi Arabia and the Arab group of negotiators have resisted such language, including storming out of one meeting room, according to one observer of the process granted anonymity to discuss the closed-door talks.

"We have raised our consistent concerns with attempts to attack energy sources instead of emissions," Saudi Arabia's Albara Tawfiq said during Sunday's public session.

The Guardian adds that "there is some optimism coming from the discussions."

Catherine Abreu, the executive director of Destination Zero, said: "In eight years of attending climate talks, I have never felt more that we were talking about what really matters. Hearing ministers from all around the world talk straight about the realities of phasing out fossil fuels is something I could not have imagined happening in this process even two years ago. "What's clear after this Majlis dialogue at Cop28 is that there is overwhelming consensus that phasing out fossil fuels and scaling up renewable energy is absolutely necessary to hold to the promise of the Paris Agreement and keep the hope of 1.5 alive.

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