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World divided at COP28 over whether to end fossil fuel era
(EurActiv, 7 Dec 2023) It’s the issue at the core of COP28: will this year’s UN climate talks, held in major oil producer the United Arab Emirates, produce the first global agreement to phase out fossil fuel use?
Burning fossil fuels for energy is by far the biggest cause of climate change. It is also the engine of modern life – even with the growth of renewables, fossil fuels produce around 80% of the world’s energy.
UN climate negotiations over the last three decades, however, have yet to address the issue head on. The COP26 summit in Glasgow in 2021 made the first tangible progress toward a fossil fuel exit deal with an agreement to reduce coal use, but without mentioning oil and gas.
At COP28 in Dubai, more than 80 countries are pushing for a broader pact to phase out all CO2-emitting fossil fuels.
Among them is the European Union and its climate commissioner, Wopke Hoekstra. “I want this COP to mark the beginning of the end of fossil fuels,” he told a press conference on Wednesday. “We simply have to get rid of fossil fuels in full.”
“The ‘phase out’ is a tool to reach the goal. And the goal is an energy system that has no emissions,” Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barthe Eide told Reuters at COP28.
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EurActiv, 7 Dec 2023: World divided at COP28 over whether to end fossil fuel era
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