The world must phase out fossil fuels if it wants to curb global warming, the United Nations climate chief said in an interview with The Associated Press. But he said the idea may not be on the agenda of “decisive” international climate talks this fall, conducted in and by an oil haven.
A phase-out of heat-trapping fossil fuels “is something that is at the top of all or most of the discussions that take place,” said UN climate executive secretary Simon Stiell. “This is a problem that has the attention of the whole world. We will see how this translates into an agenda item and an outcome (climate talks).
Stiell told AP he couldn’t quite promise he would get a place on the agenda of the climate talks, called COP28, in Dubai later this year.
That agenda decision is up to the chair of the negotiations, Stiell said. He is the head of Abu Dhabi’s national oil company, Sultan al-Jaber.
The decision by the host country, the United Arab Emirates, to appoint al-Jaber to head the climate conference has drawn stiff opposition from European and American lawmakers, as well as environmental campaigners. UAE officials have said they want game-changing results in the climate talks and note that al-Jaber also runs a major renewable energy company.
Last year, during the climate talks, an Indian proposal to phase out all fossil fuels, backed by the United States and many European countries, was never on the agenda . What is discussed is decided by the president of the COP, who was last year the foreign minister of Egypt, a natural gas exporting country.
Asked if Egyptian leaders had kept the concept off the agenda, Stiell, speaking via Zoom from Bonn, Germany, where preliminary talks begin on Monday, said he couldn’t. comment except to say “it’s up to them”.
An engineer-turned-government official and diplomat, Stiell distinguished between talking about the importance of phasing out fossil fuels and supporting the UN process that gave oil and natural gas exporting countries responsibility for negotiations on global warming for two consecutive years. years.
According to scientists who monitor emissions at the Global Carbon Project, about 94% of human industrial activity of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the air last year came from burning coal, oil and natural gas. Al-Jaber’s company has the capacity to produce 2 million barrels of oil and 7 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day and said it plans to increase this drilling to 5 million barrels per day from here 2027.
The phasing out of fossil fuels on the agenda this year depends on conference chairman al-Jaber and enough pressure from other nations, Stiell said.
“What better place to discuss… than in a region where fossil fuels are central to their economy? Stiel asked.
But the issue of phasing out coal, oil and natural gas is so central to Stiell that he raised it four times during the half-hour interview on Saturday. He said the real problem is getting something done, not putting it on the agenda.
In public appearances, al-Jaber has emphasized being “laser focused on phasing out fossil fuel emissions”, not necessarily on the fuels themselves, promoting the capture of the carbon and the removal of the air pollutant.
Stiell dismissed the idea that carbon removal can be a short-term solution.
“Right now, in this critical decade of action to achieve these deep reductions, science tells us that this can only be achieved through reduced use, significantly reduced use, of all fossil fuels,” Stiell said in the interview.
Stiell defended consecutive years of climate negotiations conducted in and by fossil fuel exporting countries as the wishes of the “parties” or countries involved.
This year will be crucial because it is the first global report to see where the world is in its efforts to reduce carbon emissions. To meet the Paris Agreement target of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times, greenhouse gas pollution must be halved by by 2030, he said.
“We know we’re a long way from where we need to be,” Stiell said.
This year’s report sets up a new round of commitments for even tougher emissions cuts by telling nations the hard truth about the seriousness of the situation, Stiell said. The problem hasn’t been that nations know how bad it is, he said.
“It’s a lack of implementation,” Stiell said. “I don’t think it’s the lack of knowledge. There has been report after report after report all saying the same thing, all with increasing urgency.”
After less than a year on the job, but years as a national negotiator before that, Stiell said he was “beyond frustration. What motivates me is the desire to make a difference.
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Frank Jordans contributed from Berlin.
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Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears
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