Not a simple “commitment” but a “formal decision”. This is what more than a hundred NGOs who signed a letter addressed to the president of COP28, Sultan Al Jaber, concerning fossil fuels are expecting. “The success of COP28 will be judged according to its ability to ensure an agreement on a complete energy package” including “an exit from all fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) in all sectors,” the associations urge. According to them, this should result in the absence of new fossil fuel projects as well as an “urgent” decline in their production and use during this decade.
The letter is signed by numerous NGOs committed to defending the environment around the world such as 350.org, CAN (Climate action network), Friends of the Earth US, Greenpeace international… They are also pushing for a goal of tripling the renewable energies by 2030, a doubling of energy efficiency gains and a jump in financing from rich countries. “We will consider any decision recognizing the need to develop renewable energies and energy efficiency, but silent on the urgent need to move away from fossil fuels, as inadequate and not aligned with science,” insist the signatories.
An expected “formal decision”
They also repeatedly emphasize that these elements must appear in a “formal decision” of the COP, therefore a binding text within the framework of a consensus found under the aegis of the UN. “The energy package must be formally part of the final text of COP28 and not be relegated to “commitments””, demand the NGOs, who are concerned about the tone of the presidency of the future COP in this regard.
Sultan Al Jaber has in fact invited countries to join a voluntary “commitment” on energy, in his letters addressed to the parties. He also emphasizes the role of “solutions and technologies” to rid the energy system of its greenhouse gas emissions. For NGOs, this is in particular an allusion to carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies, which they describe as a “dangerous distraction”.