Cop: ‘Points of convergence’ on mitigation

The ministers tasked with facilitating political negotiations on climate mitigation at the Cop 28 UN climate conference in Dubai have identified some points of convergence between parties, but disagreement persists as the summit enters its second week.

Consultations on mitigation held ahead of the conference — both virtually and at the pre-Cop ministerial summit in Abu Dhabi in October — showed "broad agreement" on the need for enhanced ambition and better implementation, said Norway's climate and environment minister Espen Barth-Eide, who has been appointed alongside Singapore's sustainability and environment minister Grace Fu to facilitate ministerial negotiations on the topic.

But there is not yet agreement on how to approach "many issues", such as building on the Glasgow Climate Pact agreed at Cop 26 in 2021, responding to UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) sixth synthesis report, published earlier this year, or accelerating and deepening global mitigation efforts, Barth-Eide told Cop 28 delegates today.

Talks need to focus on "what we actually do", he said, particularly on the energy transition, non-CO2 gases such as methane, and forests, oceans and carbon sinks.

"There might be some room for CCS [carbon capture and storage], but the main job is done by nature," he emphasised.

Norway's position broadly aligns with the EU's stance on CCS. "CCS is part of the solutions space… [but] we cannot CCS ourselves out of the space", EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra said today. CCS technology is "a minor part of the solutions space", he added, while member of European Parliament Peter Liese pointed to the lack of definition around abatement.

"We will have honest discussions with the parties to identify new mitigation opportunities, identify challenges, try to reduce them, look for possible measures and best practices and also see how we can meet the long-term Paris agreement goal," Barth-Eide said.

The annual high-level ministerial roundtable on pre-2030 ambition, scheduled to take place at Cop tomorrow, is likely to facilitate exchange on the subject, Fu added.

Other ministerial pairings include Chile's environment minister Maisa Rojas and Australia's assistant climate minister Jennifer McAllister to focus on adaptation, Canada's environment and climate change minister Steven Guilbeault and Egypt's environment minister Yasmin Fouad on finance, and Denmark's global climate policy minister Dan Jorgensen and South Africa's environment, forestry and fisheries minister Barbara Creecy on the global stocktake, a five-yearly undertaking to measure progress towards the Paris climate agreement.

UN climate body secretary general Simon Stiell today urged ministers to start with the highest ambition outcomes, which he said must "stay front and centre" of negotiations. "Compromises will be essential. But not on ambition," Stiell said.

By Victoria Hatherick, Georgia Gratton and Bachar Halabi