The 27 countries that form the European Union are preparing to propose a global deal to phase out fossil fuels when this year’s United Nations climate summit, COP 28, convenes in the United Arab Emirates November 30.
“The EU document, which is still being negotiated and could change before it is due to be finalized in October, said the energy sector should be largely free of fossil fuels ‘well ahead of 2050’ because cost-effective, CO2-free energy sources are already available,” Reuters reports, based on a reporter’s review of the draft. “EU diplomats hope a deal could be clinched at COP 28—but expect to meet resistance from economies reliant on income from selling oil and gas.”
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Toward the end of last year’s COP 27 negotiations in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, then-EU vice-president Frans Timmermans proposed a dramatic “grand bargain” that would have peaked greenhouse gas emissions before 2025 and committed to phasing down oil and gas as well as coal.
“The European Union offer would include a commitment to immediately establish a new loss and damage response fund with details worked out over the next year as well as a commitment to examine debt and reform the multilateral development banks,” Bloomberg reported at the time. “There also would be a pledge to ensure all financial flows are aligned with the Paris Agreement commitment to keep global warming to 1.5°C.”
More than 80 countries backed the plan, but it was shot down by Saudi Arabia and other major oil and gas producers, Reuters recalls. But now, the EU is trying again. “The shift toward a climate neutral economy will require the global phase-out of [unabated] fossil fuels and a peak in their consumption already in the near term,” the draft negotiating document stated.
While adoption of the EU proposal would not be legally binding, Reuters explains, “the idea behind a global deal to gradually quit fossil fuels is to create a powerful ‘north star’ to guide future climate negotiations, government policies, and investments towards energy sources and technologies that do not contribute to heating the planet.”
