{"id":249717,"date":"2023-12-04T12:01:41","date_gmt":"2023-12-04T12:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=249717"},"modified":"2023-12-04T05:56:51","modified_gmt":"2023-12-04T05:56:51","slug":"cop28-president-says-there-is-no-science-behind-demands-for-phase-out-of-fossil-fuels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2023\/12\/cop28-president-says-there-is-no-science-behind-demands-for-phase-out-of-fossil-fuels\/","title":{"rendered":"Cop28 President Says There Is \u2018No Science\u2019 Behind Demands for Phase-Out of Fossil Fuels"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sultan Al Jaber: \u2018There is no science out there that says that the phase-out of fossil fuel is what\u2019s going to achieve 1.5C.\u2019
Photograph: Anadolu\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

3 Dec 2023<\/em> – The president of Cop28<\/a>, Sultan Al Jaber, has claimed there is \u201cno science\u201d indicating that a phase-out of fossil fuels is needed to restrict global heating to 1.5C, the Guardian and the Centre for Climate Reporting can reveal.<\/p>\n

Al Jaber also said a phase-out of fossil fuels would not allow sustainable development \u201cunless you want to take the world back into caves\u201d.<\/p>\n

The comments were \u201cincredibly concerning\u201d and \u201cverging on climate denial\u201d, scientists said, and they were at odds with the position of the UN secretary general, Ant\u00f3nio Guterres.<\/p>\n

Al Jaber made the comments in ill-tempered responses to questions from Mary Robinson, the chair of the Elders group and a former UN special envoy for climate change, during a live online event on 21 November. As well as running Cop28 in Dubai, Al Jaber is also the chief executive of the United Arab Emirates\u2019 state oil company, Adnoc, which many observers see as a serious conflict of interest.<\/p>\n

More than 100 countries already support a phase-out of fossil fuels and whether the final Cop28 agreement calls for this or uses weaker language such as \u201cphase-down\u201d is one of the most fiercely fought issues at the summit and may be the key determinant of its success. Deep and rapid cuts are needed to bring fossil fuel emissions to zero and limit fast-worsening climate impacts.<\/p>\n

Al Jaber spoke with Robinson at a She Changes Climate<\/a> event. Robinson said: \u201cWe\u2019re in an absolute crisis that is hurting women and children more than anyone \u2026 and it\u2019s because we have not yet committed to phasing out fossil fuel. That is the one decision that Cop28 can take and in many ways, because you\u2019re head of Adnoc, you could actually take it with more credibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Al Jaber said: \u201cI accepted to come to this meeting to have a sober and mature conversation. I\u2019m not in any way signing up to any discussion that is alarmist. There is no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says that the phase-out of fossil fuel is what\u2019s going to achieve 1.5C.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robinson challenged him further, saying: \u201cI read that your company is investing in a lot more fossil fuel in the future.\u201d Al Jaber responded: \u201cYou\u2019re reading your own media, which is biased and wrong. I am telling you I am the man in charge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Al Jaber then said: \u201cPlease help me, show me the roadmap for a phase-out of fossil fuel that will allow for sustainable socioeconomic development, unless you want to take the world back into caves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think [you] will be able to help solve the climate problem by pointing fingers or contributing to the polarisation and the divide that is already happening in the world. Show me the solutions. Stop the pointing of fingers. Stop it,\u201d Al Jaber said.<\/p>\n

Guterres told Cop28 delegates on Friday: \u201cThe science is clear: The 1.5C limit is only possible if we ultimately stop burning all fossil fuels. Not reduce, not abate. Phase out, with a clear timeframe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bill Hare, the chief executive of Climate Analytics, said: \u201cThis is an extraordinary, revealing, worrying and belligerent exchange. \u2018Sending us back to caves\u2019 is the oldest of fossil fuel industry tropes: it\u2019s verging on climate denial.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAl Jaber is asking for a 1.5C roadmap \u2013 anyone who cares can find that in the International Energy Agency\u2019s latest net zero emissions scenario, which says there cannot be any new fossil fuel development. The science is absolutely clear [and] that absolutely means a phase-out by mid-century, which will enhance the lives of all of humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prof Sir David King, the chair of the Climate Crisis Advisory Group and a former UK chief scientific adviser, said: \u201cIt is incredibly concerning and surprising to hear the Cop28 president defend the use of fossil fuels. It is undeniable that to limit global warming to 1.5C we must all rapidly reduce carbon emissions and phase-out the use of fossil fuels by 2035 at the latest. The alternative is an unmanageable future for humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Friederike Otto, of Imperial College London, UK, said: \u201cThe science of climate change has been clear for decades: we need to stop burning fossil fuels. A failure to phase out fossil fuels at Cop28 will put several millions more vulnerable people in the firing line of climate change. This would be a terrible legacy for Cop28.\u201d<\/p>\n

Otto also rejected the claim that fossil fuels were necessary for development in poorer countries, saying that the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change \u201cshows that the UN\u2019s sustainable development goals are not achievable by continuing the current fossil-driven high emission economies. [There are] massive co-benefits that come with changing to a fossil-free world\u201d.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Cop28 said: \u201cThe IEA and IPCC 1.5C scenarios clearly state that fossil fuels will have to play a role in the future energy system, albeit a smaller one. The Cop president was quoting the science, and leading climate experts.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has clearly said that the oil and gas industry must tackle scope 1 and 2 emissions [from their operations], must invest in clean energy and clean technologies to address scope 3 emissions [from burning fuels], and that all industry must align around keeping the north star of 1.5C within reach.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce again, this is clearly part of a continued effort to undermine the Cop presidency\u2019s tangible achievements and a misrepresentation of our position and successes to date.\u201d<\/p>\n

The spokesperson said the presidency had operationalised the loss and damage fund with more than $700m, launched a $30bn private market climate vehicle, and brought 51 oil companies to agree decarbonisation targets and 119 countries to sign a pledge to triple renewable energy. \u201cThis is just the beginning,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Al Jaber is also head of Masdar, the UAE\u2019s renewable energy company, but his appointment as Cop28 president has been controversial. Shortly before the summit, leaked documents showed that the UAE had planned to use climate meetings<\/a> with governments to promote oil and gas deals. Al Jaber denied having seen<\/a> or used the talking points in the documents. Adnoc also has the largest net-zero-busting expansion plans<\/a> for oil and gas, according to independent analysis.<\/p>\n

The issue of a phase-out or phase-down is complicated by the terms not having agreed definitions and by the highly uncertain role of technologies to \u201cabate\u201d emissions, such as carbon capture and storage. \u201cKeeping the Paris agreement targets alive will require a full fossil fuel phase-out, not a vague phase-down relying on unproven technologies,\u201d said Otto.<\/p>\n

More than 100 African, European, Pacific and Caribbean countries back a phase-out<\/a> of unabated fossil fuels. The US, the world\u2019s biggest oil and gas producer, also backs a phase-out. Others, such as Russia, Saudi Arabia and China, reject the call. Both options are on the table<\/a> at Cop28, as well as proposals to only mention coal, or to not say anything at all about fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

Cop26 in Glasgow in 2021 agreed for the first time to \u201cphase down\u201d coal use, but this had been watered down from \u201cphase out\u201d at the last minute, bringing the Cop26 president, Alok Sharma, to tears<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In his conversation with Robinson, Al Jaber also said: \u201cA phase-down and a phase-out of fossil fuel in my view is inevitable. That is essential. But we need to be real serious and pragmatic about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHold on. Let me just explain,\u201d he said. \u201cThe world will continue to need energy sources. We [UAE] are the only ones in the world today that have been decarbonising the oil and gas resources. We have the lowest carbon intensity.\u201d<\/p>\n

This refers to the emissions from the energy used to extract fossil fuels, not the far larger emissions from burning the fuels. \u201cThere is no such thing as \u2018low carbon\u2019 or \u2018lower carbon\u2019 oil and gas,\u201d said Otto.<\/p>\n

Numerous commentators have said that negative or embarrassing revelations about Al Jaber and Adnoc increase the pressure<\/a> on him to deliver a strong Cop28 deal. The Guardian reported recently that state-run UAE oil and gas fields had been flaring gas almost daily<\/a> despite having committed 20 years ago to a policy of zero routine flaring.<\/p>\n

The Guardian previously reported that Adnoc had been able to read emails to and from the Cop28 office<\/a> until the Guardian raised the issue in June and that the UAE had also failed to report its oil industry\u2019s emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas methane<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Harjeet Singh, at Climate Action Network, said: \u201cCop28 must deliver a decision on phasing out fossil fuels in a just and equitable manner, without any loopholes or escape routes for the industry to continue expanding and exacerbating the climate crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

** Cop28 Live \u2013 Latest Updates **<\/a><\/h3>\n

Go to Original – theguardian.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

3 Dec 2023 – The president of Cop28, Sultan Al Jaber, has claimed there is \u201cno science\u201d indicating that a phase-out of fossil fuels is needed. He said a phase-out would not allow sustainable development \u201cunless you want to take the world back into caves\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":249719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-249717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249717"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":249721,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249717\/revisions\/249721"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}