Fossil fuel-linked Cop28 chief demands countries should 'raise the bar higher'

Cop28 president Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber made the plea as intensive negotiations begin on reaching a deal on global environmental action. Picture: Kamran Jebreili/AP 

The controversial president of the UN's climate change summit has called on countries to "raise the bar higher" as intensive negotiations begin on reaching a deal on global environmental action.

Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, who has come in for severe criticism over his ties to fossil fuel even before Cop28 began in Dubai, said countries must come together for a deal, as tussling over "phasing out" or "phasing down" of the likes of oil and gas intensifies.

The difference between "phasing down" and "phasing out" has been a source of contention for governments across the world, with the likes of former president Mary Robinson and environmental activists calling for their complete elimination in order to have any shot of keeping global warming to 1.5C as outlined in the Paris Agreement of 2015.

However, despite the overwhelming scientific consensus that fossil fuels are exacerbating human-induced climate change, there has been fierce resistance from the likes of Saudi Arabia, which refuses to countenance even a phase down.

It has meant that negotiators from countries around the world are now searching for language that will be acceptable for a deal to be reached on a global treaty, such as the one signed in Paris at Cop21 in 2015.

According to the Paris Agreement of 2015, reached at Cop21, a 1.5C rise in temperatures was set as the limit for the rise globally compared to 1850-1900, in order to stave off the very worst fallout from climate change.

Cop28 has to consider the so-called "global stocktake", an examination of all the climate plans for countries across the world. It is expected to show that 1.5C is way off trajectory and that a massive ramping up of decarbonisation needs to take place between now and 2030.

Meanwhile, an Irish aid organisation has warned that the $700m (€650m) raised as part of a "loss and damage" fund for vulnerable countries is "only a drop in the ocean" of what is actually needed.

“Loss and damage” refers to the consequences of climate change that go beyond what people can adapt to, while “climate finance” refers to major nations paying a fairer share towards climate change bolstering in smaller nations.

Agreement was reached in the earliest hours of Cop28 to start paying into the fund, after a landmark agreement on loss and damage was agreed after years of geopolitical tussling at last year's Cop27 in Egypt.

Christian Aid Ireland’s policy and advocacy officer Ross Fitzpatrick, who is in Dubai for Cop28, said: 

The pledges made so far are only a drop in the ocean compared to the scale of what’s needed. 

"Academic research estimates loss and damage costs for developing countries of up to €530bn by 2030 globally. 

"Or to look at one specific example — insurer Aon estimates that Cyclone Freddy caused $655m in damages when it hit a small number of south eastern African countries in February and March this year. That would see the fund as it stands emptied by a single cyclone."

Politicians still have not aligned ambition with reality, he said. 

"The fund’s lack of defined scope and predictability are also cause for concern."

"The fund is voluntary, with no obligation to pay in, and there is no overarching target to work towards. Unless there is a concerted effort to urgently raise the hundreds of billions needed, there is a real risk that this process could lose credibility in the eyes of those most reliant on it."

 

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