Cop: Cop28 DG says no red line on fossil fuel phase out

The Cop 28 UN climate conference presidency has no "red lines" when it comes to the language on fossil fuels in the negotiated text, director general Majid al-Suwaidi said today.

"Our job as a Cop presidency is not to have red lines," al-Suwaidi said. "We don't have red lines."

Al-Suwaidi was responding to a question about comments made earlier in the day by UN secretary general Antonio Guterres about the need to phase out, rather than phase down, the use of fossil fuels if the world is to avoid a climate disaster and meet the ambitions of the Paris climate agreement. That agreement sets a goal of limiting global warming to "well below" 2° above pre-industrial averages, and preferably to 1.5°C.

"We cannot save a burning planet with a firehose of fossil fuels," Guterres said. "We must accelerate a just, equitable transition to renewables. The science is clear. The 1.5°C limit is only possible if we ultimately stop burning all fossil fuels. Not reduce. Not abate. Phase out, with a clear timeframe aligned with 1.5°C."

Al-Suwaidi said the UAE, as president of Cop 28, has been "very clear" about the need to discuss energy and the energy system, and how the summit should deliver fossil fuel language. While many countries support a phase out of fossil fuel use, others, the UAE included, view hydrocarbons like oil and gas as having a role in the energy transition.

Cop 28 president Sultan al-Jaber has regularly argued for the need to include all forms of energy, including oil and gas, in the global energy mix, particularly until there is sufficient alternative energy capacity to take over from today's hydrocarbon-heavy baseload.

"It is not oil and gas, or solar. Not wind or nuclear, or hydrogen. It is oil and gas, and solar, and wind and nuclear, and hydrogen," al-Jaber said late last year. "It is all of the above, plus the clean energies yet to be discovered, commercialised and deployed. The world needs maximum energy, minimum emissions."

By Nader Itayim