A lot of unhappiness over COP28

Here’s an article from “Bloomberg Green”:

COP28 in Dubai is scheduled to end today, but there seems to be little prospect of a deal on the horizon. A long-awaited draft published on Monday included, for the first time, a reference to reducing the production and consumption of fossil fuels. Yet, it also gave countries too many get-outs to avoid meaningfully slashing greenhouse gas emissions this decade.

Those divides spilled onto the floor of a behind-closed-door meeting of delegation heads late into the evening, with US special presidential envoy for climate John Kerry strongly expressing the text on offer did not meet the moment that this climate summit called for. Others went further, with Australia saying “we will not sign their death certificates” in response to the Marshall Islands’ John Silk who said that the deal would commit his island nation to its “watery grave.”

So where does that leave us? At least one new draft text will be needed to address those concerns. Ireland’s Climate Minister Eamon Ryan said the current one may be justification for walking away from talks — which would mark the kind of collapse not seen in over two decades. But developed countries will also be wary of those on the other side, led in chief by Saudi Arabia, who roundly rejects any imminent end to the fossil fuel order. “Phase out” language may be too toxic for many to live with.

Activists are banging the drum for more ambition. Delegates last night had to pass through a tunnel of interlinked campaigners who made clear their frustration over what they felt was a cop-out on climate.

The key to any deal will be how far the likes of China and India are willing to go — with much potentially resting on Kerry and his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua’s swansong COP — and how much political capital the summit’s Emirati President Sultan Al Jaber has with his own Arab group of countries. Phones are likely to be ringing between Washington, Brussels and Riyadh.

There are other issues on the table too, including financial ones and how to deal with adaptation. Talks are likely to drag on for many hours at least, meaning any desire to conclude COP28 on the eighth anniversary of the landmark Paris Agreement are likely to be disappointed. Perhaps the only certain end is when Winter City and Santa Claus move into the summit’s Dubai Expo City on Friday.