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The United Arab Emirates, hosts of the COP28 climate summit, said on Tuesday it would seek consensus on a new draft agreement after widespread criticism of language on fossil fuels.
Majid Al Suwaidi, director general of COP28, played down attacks on the text published on Monday, saying the Emirati hosts were testing countries’ “red lines” and were working on another draft.
“We need to work on how to include their views in the text so that everyone can be happy and that we can move towards achieving the goals” of controlling warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, he told reporters.
“I think what happened with our text was really that we were having honest, practical, pragmatic conversations about where people’s red lines really were,” he said.
“The point is to achieve consensus.”
A protester condemns the use of fossil fuels during COP28
According to the rules of the UN climate convention, agreements need the consensus of all participants: almost 200 countries.
Saudi Arabia has led the fight against calls backed by vulnerable nations and Western powers to phase out oil, gas and coal, the biggest culprits in the planet’s climate crisis.
“We’ve known for a long time that the language around fossil fuels is complicated,” he said.
“There are those who want a gradual elimination, there are those who want a gradual reduction. There are those who want different formulations,” he said.
“The issue is to achieve consensus and we do not want a formulation that blocks the process.”
Negotiators are already working past the deadline set by the Emiratis to complete the work before the official close of the 13-day conference at 11 a.m. (0700 GMT) on Tuesday.
“We would all like to finish on time, but we all want to get the most ambitious result possible. That is our singular goal,” Suwaidi said.
Kerry, who was confronted by climate activists as he left the meeting, described achieving the 1.5°C target as a “war of survival”.
The proposed agreement sets out a series of actions that nations “could” take to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, but were not required to do so.
“I, like most of you here, refuse to be part of a charade” of not phasing out fossil fuels, he said.
Some Pacific island nations argued that the language surrounding the 1.5°C warming target amounted to a death sentence.
‘For us this is a question of survival. We cannot create loopholes in our children’s future,” said Tuvalu delegation head Seve Paeniu, adding that the proposed text “doesn’t even come close to offering 1.5 as a lodestar.”
Cedric Schuster of Samoa, who chairs the Alliance of Small Island States, said its members felt their voices were not heard.
“We will not sign our death certificate,” he said. ‘We cannot sign a text that does not include firm commitments on the phasing out of fossil fuels.
‘Throughout this process we have been asked what is at stake if these negotiations do not produce a solid result that keeps 1.5 alive. How can we not understand that what is at stake is our own survival?
Zhao Yingmin, China’s vice minister of ecology and environment, told the meeting that “the draft does not address the concerns of developing countries on some key issues” and, in particular, the idea that greenhouse gas emissions They should peak in 2025.
Despite criticism and accusations, Saudi Arabia and other oil states remained steadfast in their approach to the deal.
The nation’s representative at the climate summit, Noura Alissa, said publicly that the deal “must work for everyone.”
“It must be relevant, it must make sense to accelerate action for each country in this room, not for one over another,” he added.
Talks are scheduled to end on Tuesday, when a revised text is expected to be presented, but many observers expect it to be extended.