The UAE say “fossil fuel emissions” should be phased out but Guterres said “fossil fuels” themselves must go, in a split on the role of carbon capture
The United Nations chief has said fossil fuels, not just their emissions, are the problem in the climate crisis, in an apparent rebuke to the United Arab Emirates Cop28 presidency.
Speaking after a meeting with civil society, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged countries to “progressively phase [fossil fuels] out, moving to leave oil, gas and coal in the ground where they belong”, and boost investment in renewable energy.
“We are hurtling towards disaster, eyes wide open,” he said, “with far too many willing to bet it all on wishful thinking, unproven technologies and silver bullet solutions”.
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In response to Guterres’ statement, a Cop28 spokesperson told Climate Home News the presidency “has been explicit about the need for a rapid, well managed and just energy transition”. They added that “we need to find a way to hold back emissions, not progress” and that the world cannot be unplugged from the energy system of today overnight.
Guterres’ statements take aim at countries calling for the phase out of fossil fuel emissions rather than the fuels themselves and for the large-scale deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.
Al Jaber’s signals
This includes Cop28’s host, the United Arab Emirates. In an agenda-setting speech last month, the climate summit’s president-designate Sultan Al Jaber backed a “phase out of fossil fuel emissions”.
His words were interpreted as leaving a loophole for continuing to use such fuels if their emissions are kept out of the atmosphere with CCS.
Several oil-producing countries and fossil fuel companies are betting heavily on CCS, but the technology remains expensive and unproven at large scale.
According to the IPCC’s scientists, stopping a tonne of carbon dioxide with CCUS costs between $50 and $200. Replacing fossil fuels with renewables usually saves money.
Cop28 battle lines
At the Bonn climate talks last week, Al Jaber made stronger remarks, saying the “phasedown of fossil fuels is inevitable”. But he stopped short of calling for a “phase out” or indicating the pace at which that the phase down needs to happen.
A broad coalition of nations has been pushing for an agreement to “phase out fossil fuels” at Cop28 after failing to reach that at last year’s summit in Egypt.
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Asked if he supported a fossil fuel phase-out yesterday, the Egyptian Cop27 presidency’s ambassador Wael Aboulmagd told Climate Home that “there is no one size fits all” and that wealthy fossil fuel producers like Norway shouldn’t be treated like poorer p
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