OPEC’s letter to oil countries during COP28 shakes up the Conference’s work. Is the fossil fuel phase-out skipped?
A few hours after the conclusion of COP28, the United Nations Climate Change Conference with the highest presence of fossil fuel lobbyists, it appears increasingly clear that there will be no explicit results on the farewell, even gradual, to gas, coal and oil. The last hopes were dampened by direct pressure from OPEC that came at the end of COP28.
Antonio Guterres’ words on the last day of work
Today, perhaps in an attempt to promote an agreement as favorable as possible for the environment, the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres He spoke at a press conference to reiterate the urgency of changes in favor of the climate and the Planet:
Our planet is just minutes to midnight on the 1.5 degree limit. And the clock is ticking. We are in a race against time and we need an ambitious outcome that demonstrates a decisive climate plan to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees and protect those on the front lines of the climate crisis.
Guterres insisted on the need to “reach compromises for solutions”, while understanding how the different levels of development for countries can make it more complex to reach an agreement that is satisfactory for all. A signal is needed, at least that, that is consistent with thetarget of zero emissions by 2050 and in a handful of hours we will understand if in these 10 days of meetings, conferences and negotiations any steps forward have been made compared to COP27 which was held last year.
OPEC letter rocks COP28
Guterres’ words come after a day marked by pressure from theOPEC, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries which includes, among others, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Iraq and Kuwait. The more than 2,400 lobbyists present at the event were evidently not enough to apply the necessary pressure, to the point of having pushed the OPEC Secretary General Haitham al-Ghais to sign a letter inviting the oil states to refuse any agreement that focuses on “energy rather than emissions” and rejects “undue and disproportionate pressure against fossil fuels” during COP28.
The pressure from OPEC, which came after the circulation of a draft agreement that included the request to phase out fossil fuelshas inevitably raised great controversy and among the harshest public reactions there has been that of Teresa Riberathe Spanish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Ecological Transition who held a conference in which she frontally attacked the organization founded in Vienna in 1960.
The pressure from OPEC countries is almost disgusting. We are not asking to eliminate fossil fuels tomorrow. Instead, we must create the conditions for a gradual exit. And on this, the European Union is very clear and in line with the vast majority of countries present at COP28.
Ribera stressed that more than a hundred out of 196 countries would have declared themselves in favour to the so-called phase outthe gradual elimination of fossil fuels in favor of energy sources that are less harmful to the environment, but we will have to wait until the end of the event to understand whether or not that reference to the phase out which had put the oil-producing countries on alert.
Source: www.greenstyle.it
