US and Saudi Arabia termed obstructionist; developed countries have plans for fossil fuel expansion till 2050
Indian protester onstage at the Global Climate Action High-Level Event (closing): Uniting on the Pathway to 2030 and Beyond session during COP28 at Expo City Dubai on December 11, 2023. Photo by COP28 / Anthony Fleyhan / Flickr Discussion on the Global Stocktake stuck mainly on fossil fuel cut; adaptation draft proposed to be watered down; and some movement on finance – this seems to be the negotiation progress as of morning of December 12, 2023 at the 28th Conference of Parties (COP28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The developed countries tried to reap a trade off against agreeing to a loss and damage finance facility on the first day of COP28 that raised hopes about a successful outcome of the Dubai summit.
Underscoring the hard bargaining that has been going on, UNFCCC executive secretary Simon Stiell said Monday morning that “none of us have had much sleep”, and pointed out that “finance must be the bedrock to scale up climate action on all fronts”.
Though Stiell pointed out that “a new text (on GST, the most critical agenda) will be landed shortly, within the next few minutes” at 9.15 am, a draft text from the Presidency only landed at 4.30 pm; indicating the hard bargaining that has been going on behind closed doors.
The text referred to several provisions of fossil fuel cut, which were surely to be negotiated in coming hours and overnight.
“I have been part of climate negotiation for more than a decade but have hardly come across such a hard one,” said Xie Zhenhua, the negotiation lead of China in Dubai.
“We have given you the Loss and Damage fund on the day-one, do not ask for anything else, this seems to be the mood of developed countries in the negotiation. It is unfortunate that the developed countries are trying to wipe out differentiation between who are responsible for emission, and who are being affected,” said Sanjay Vashist, director of civil society platform Climate Action Network South Asia to this reporter on Monday noon.
“In lieu of $700 million loss and damage fund; the developed countries led by the United States are trying to wipe out every reference of historical responsibility, equity, and quantification in global goal of adaptation so that specific fund assessment cannot be made; while many are trying to ensure the continuing use of fossil fuel by promoting false technologies like CCS (carbon storage and capture) and nuclear,” further explained the expert.
“The Presidency is directly looking after the Global Stocktake text now, it got stuck on fossil fuel language and other mitigation modes to follow. Some of the developed countries have plans for fossil fuel expansion till 2050, actually countries like Saudi Arabia and the United States are not calling for fossil fuel phase out at all in negotiation,” a long-term negotiation tracker told this reporter.
“On Global Goal of Adaptation, not much progress has been made as the US is playing the main obstructionist role. They do not want any link to the Paris Agreement here, as well as no reference to common but differentiated responsibility and means of implementation. Finance agreement has several issues with developed countries only willing to negotiate on 2.1(c) and stress on private finance,” the expert elaborated.
Article 2.1(c) of the Paris Agreement on climate change emphasises on “making finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and climate-resilient development.”
“The language of Article 2.1(c) is vague on what exactly it entails,” said an expert with World Resource Institute.
In comparison, there has been some headway in just transition text though some brackets, meaning disagreements, remain.
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