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…

#world #cdnpoli #COP28 #timelines #PhaseOut #reductions #unacceptable #environment

Global Tipping Points

Harmful tipping points in the natural world pose some of the gravest threats faced by humanity. Their triggering will severely damage our planet’s life-support systems and threaten the stability of our societies.

For example, the collapse of the Atlantic Ocean’s great overturning circulation combined with global warming could cause half of the global area for growing wheat and maize to be lost. Five major tipping points are already at risk of being crossed due to warming right now and three more are threatened in the 2030s as the world exceeds 1.5°C global warming.

The full damage caused by negative tipping points will be far greater than their initial impact. The effects will cascade through globalised social and economic systems, and could exceed the ability of some countries to adapt. Negative tipping points show that the threat posed by the climate and ecological crisis is far more severe than is commonly understood and is of a magnitude never before faced by humanity.

Currently, there is no adequate global governance at the scale of the threats posed by negative tipping points. The world is on a disastrous trajectory. Crossing one harmful tipping point could trigger others, causing a domino effect of accelerating and unmanageable change to our life-support systems. Preventing this – and doing so equitably – should become the core goal and logic of a new global governance framework. Prevention is only possible if societies and economic systems are transformed to rapidly reduce emissions and restore nature.

The current approach of linear incremental change favoured by many decision makers is no longer an option. Existing governance institutions and decision-making approaches need to adapt to facilitate transformational change.

Crucial to achieving this transformational change are positive tipping point opportunities, where desirable changes in society become self-propelling. Concerted actions can create the enabling conditions for triggering rapid and large-scale transformation. Human history is flush with examples of abrupt social and technological change. Recent examples include the exponential increases in renewable electricity, the global reach of environmental justice movements, and the accelerating rollout of electric vehicles. Negative tipping point threats could be mitigated if there was a vast effort to trigger other positive tipping point opportunities.

Click here to download the summary report in pdf format https://global-tipping-points.org/download/4607/

Unfortunately, in the time lag during which appropriate governance and action might be realised, negative tipping points could still be triggered. This means that societies must urgently be made more resilient to minimise the vast and unequal harms. Critically, more resilient societies are also needed to ensure that collective focus on triggering positive tipping point opportunities can be sustained even through a negative tipping event. This resiliency can be achieved with ‘no regrets’ actions that anyway make societies more sustainable, equitable and prosperous.

The existence of tipping points means that ‘business as usual’ is now over. Rapid changes to nature and society are occurring, and more are coming. If we don’t revise our governance approach, these changes could overwhelm societies as the natural world rapidly comes apart. Alternatively, with emergency global action and appropriate governance, collective interventions could harness the power of positive tipping point opportunities, helping navigate toward a thriving sustainable future. |Read more https://global-tipping-points.org/| global-tipping-points.org/

#world #triggers #TippingPoints #environment #ClimateChange #cdnpoli #emergency #GlobalAction