Cop28 deal will fail unless rich countries quit fossil fuels, says climate negotiator | Fossil fuels | The Guardian

"The credibility of the Cop28 agreement to “transition away” from fossil fuels rides on the world’s biggest historical polluters like the US, UK and Canada rethinking current plans to expand oil and gas production, according to the climate negotiator representing 135 developing countries.

In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Pedro Pedroso, the outgoing president of the G77 plus China bloc of developing countries, warned that the landmark deal made at last year’s climate talks in Dubai risked failing.

“We achieved some important outcomes at Cop28 but the challenge now is how we translate the deal into meaningful action for the people,” Pedroso said.

“As we speak, unless we lie to ourselves, none of the major developed countries, who are the most important historical emitters, have policies that are moving away from fossil fuels, on the contrary, they are expanding,” said Pedroso."

Continue reading the article at The Guardian (subscription may be required)

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/19/cop28-fossil-fuels-climate-deal-pedro-pedroso-us-uk-canada-pollution

Pedro Pedroso in Havana, Cuba, in 2016. Photograph: Yamil Lage/AFP via Getty Images

The Guardian view on Cop28: a phase-out of fossil fuels is the only decision that makes sense | Editorial | The Guardian

"It was never really in doubt. But the first week of Cop28, which ended with a rest day on Thursday, made one crucial fact impossible to ignore: the fossil fuel industry is not planning to go quietly. Far more of its lobbyists are in the UAE than have attended UN climate talks before. One analysis counted 2,456 of them – nearly four times the number registered last year in Egypt.

The battle is hotting up over what next week’s report on progress towards the Paris goals, known as the global stocktake, will say. Fossil fuel interests – both corporate and national – are pushing hard to avoid references to the phase-out that would signal the end of their business model and vast profits. They don’t want an energy transition that leads to their demise.

Last week, the Guardian revealed that Sultan Al Jaber, who holds the Cop presidency and leads the UAE’s state oil company, recently asserted that “no science” indicates that “a phase-out of fossil fuel is what’s going to achieve 1.5C”. Forced on to the defensive, he later said that “the phase-down and phase-out of fossil fuel is inevitable”. But it is the nations at Cop28 that will decide, and there is no guarantee that any such pledge will appear in the final text.

One of the key battlegrounds at Cop28 is that of language: whether fossil fuels will be phased “down” or “out”. The choice is either reducing carbon energy sources or getting rid of them entirely. The latter would be preferable, but there are many other battles to be won. There will be haggling over whether a transition to a cleaner future should see fossil fuels “unabated”, with greenhouse gas emissions released directly into the atmosphere, or “abated”, where carbon capture technology and carbon offsets reduce the harm caused. The latter have so far failed to deliver promised benefits, appearing more of a risk than a solution, in enabling the necessity of replacing fossil fuels to be ducked."

Continue reading The Guardian article online -> (subscription may be required)

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/08/the-guardian-view-on-cop28-a-phase-out-of-fossil-fuels-is-the-only-decision-that-makes-sense

Credit: Kiara Worth | UN Climate Change

Making Sense of Climate #36 gets into the National Climate Assessment 5 & COP 28 (audio)

FM #1109 = This is the Franklin Matters radio show, number 1109 in the series. 

This session of the radio show shares my conversation with Ted McIntyre, Franklin resident and climate activist. We met to record for the first time in person, in the Franklin Public Radio studio on Monday, November 27, 2023.  

In this episode we cover two climate topics: National Climate Assessment 5 and COP 28. COP 28 refers to the United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from 30 November until 12 December 2023. We get to these topics after talking about the role of media, podcasting, and art in raising serious questions for discussion. 

This discussion continues our journey understanding the MA roadmap toward net zero and while it helps me “make sense of climate”, we hope it helps with your understanding as well. 

If you have climate questions or Franklin specific climate questions, send them in and we’ll try to answer them in a future session.  

The conversation runs about 53 minutes. Let’s listen to my conversation with Ted as we help ‘make sense of climate.’ Audio link -> https://franklin-ma-matters.captivate.fm/episode/fm-1109-making-sense-of-climate-36-11-27-23

--------------

  

Links to the National Climate Assessment 5  https://nca2023.globalchange.gov/ 

Downloads (including PDFs) https://nca2023.globalchange.gov/downloads/ 

COP 28 -> https://unfccc.int/cop28

COP 28 links to news & media -> https://unfccc.int/cop28#news-and-media 

Recent Guardian article on COP28 -> https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/03/back-into-caves-cop28-president-dismisses-phase-out-of-fossil-fuels

** See the page that collects all the “Making Sense of Climate” episodes -> https://www.franklinmatters.org/2022/02/making-sense-of-climate-collection.html 

--------------

We are now producing this in collaboration with Franklin.TV and Franklin Public Radio (wfpr.fm) or 102.9 on the Franklin area radio dial.  

This podcast is my public service effort for Franklin but we can't do it alone. We can always use your help.

How can you help?

• If you can use the information that you find here, please tell your friends and neighbors

• If you don't like something here, please let me know

Through this feedback loop we can continue to make improvements. I thank you for listening.

For additional information, please visit www.franklin.news/ or  www.Franklinmatters.org/ 

If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com

The music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana"  c. Michael Clark & Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission.

I hope you enjoy!

------------------

You can also subscribe and listen to Franklin Matters audio on iTunes or your favorite podcast app; search in "podcasts" for "Franklin Matters"

Making Sense of Climate #36 gets into the National Climate Assessment 5 & COP 28 (audio)