COP28 BETRAYAL: ‘We Will Not Sign Our Own Death Warrant’, Delegate Says, After Al Jaber Circulates ‘Unacceptable’ Declaration

UN climate negotiations seemed certain to go into overtime this morning after the COP28 secretariat published a draft decision text that left out any clear timeline for phasing out fossil fuels and was dismissed as “unacceptable”, “incoherent”, “grossly insufficient”, and a “slap in the face” by angry, frustrated, and increasingly sleep-deprived delegates.

The sense of fury and determination at the sprawling conference site in Dubai was driven primarily by draft decision text on the Global Stocktake, the culmination of an essential, two-year process meant to track countries’ progress on their climate commitments under the 2015 Paris Agreement and set them up for faster action in the years ahead. That text is seen as “the main outcome of the summit,” but “people hate it,” Climate Home News writes this morning.

“Small island states slammed it as ‘a death warrant’, their spokesperson getting teary,” Climate Home recounts. “For the EU it contains elements that are ‘simply unacceptable’. Campaigners variably described it as ‘a scandal’, ‘divorced from reality’, and ‘a dog’s dinner’.”

‘OPEC Dictated the Text’

“We will not sign our death certificate,” declared Samoan Natural Resources and Environment Minister Cedric Shuster, chair of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS). “We cannot sign on to text that does not have strong commitments on phasing out fossil fuels.”

“We will not sign their death certificates,” an Australian delegate echoed back, after Marshall Islands negotiator John Silk said the draft declaration would commit his country to a “watery grave.”

“This obsequious draft reads as if OPEC dictated it word for word,” wrote former U.S. vice-president and Climate Reality project founder Al Gore, adding that the COP Presidency’s language had left negotiations “on the verge of complete failure”.

No Timeline for Fossil Phaseout

And instead of making reductions mandatory—setting percentages and target dates to get the job done in line with climate science—the text “frames such reductions as optional, by calling on countries to ‘take actions that could include’ reducing fossil fuels,” among a menu of other energy options, the Guardian explains.

“That one word ‘could’ just kills everything,” and it means that “we can’t accept this text,” said Irish Environment Minister Eamon Ryan. “It’s not anywhere near ambitious enough. It’s not broad enough. It’s not what parties have been calling for… we have to stitch climate justice into every part of this text and we are not anywhere near that yet.”

“I don’t know what will happen to my kids tomorrow if we stick to this text,” said French Energy Transition Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher. |Read more https://www.theenergymix.com/cop28-betrayal-we-will-not-sign-our-own-death-warrant-delegate-says-after-al-jaber-circulates-unacceptable-declaration/| theenergymix.com/cop28-betraya…

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