EU sets target for Cop28 in Dubai: fossil phase-out in global agreement

The fossil phase-out would only apply to the “unabated”

(sustainabilityenvironment.com) – At COP28 in Dubai, Europe will have the most ambitious goal ever: to achieve a global commitment to the fossil phase-out. Not only coal, on which the Cop26 has already committed – although only to “reduce” (phase-down). Oil and gas must also be phased out of the energy mix of all countries. But with exceptions.

Yes to the phase-out of fossils, but only those “unabated”

This is the content of the document with the common position of the 27 for the climate negotiations to be held in the United Arab Emirates next December. In fact, the text previewed by Reuters takes up one of the biggest loopholes for fossils that has been invented recently by climate diplomacy.

“The transition to a climate-neutral economy will require the global phasing out of [unabated] unfelled fossil fuels,” reads the draft. “The EU will systematically promote and demand a global shift towards fossil fuel-free energy systems that are not felled before 2050“.

The “unabated” is the way out. A pass for all energy infrastructure that will continue to use fossil fuels but with the adoption of technologies for the capture and storage of CO2, that is, able to reduce the total emission content. The language, however, takes up the language now consolidated in various international fora, from the annual climate negotiations under the aegis of the UNFCCC (the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) to the final communiqués of the G20.

However, so far the objective of the fossil phase-out has remained out of reach. Last year, at the COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, the Egyptian presidency refused to include this option in the draft final communiqué, although it was sponsored by dozens and dozens of countries. The rotating presidency makes all the difference. And this year’s Cop will be held in a country strongly linked to gas and oil, which has chosen the ad of the state oil company, the Adnoc, to lead the two weeks of negotiations.

In the EU document then peeps the long energy boom between France and Germany on nuclear power. The new draft has been modified to include hydrogen obtained from the atom among the sources considered renewable. An outcome for which Paris pushes in all areas of European policy.