Climate conference
Greenpeace at COP28: Close to making history
Activists from the environmental organization Greenpeace protested in front of the Italian oil and gas company ENI in Rome at the beginning of December. photo
© Andrew Medichini/AP/dpa
There is still considerable resistance to ambitious decisions to phase out fossil fuels, but at the same time there is reason for hope in Dubai, according to Greenpeace.
Almost three decades after the first UN climate conference, according to For the first time, Greenpeace has a realistic chance that the approximately 200 countries will decide to phase out coal, oil and gas. “We are close to making history here,” said the environmental organization’s delegation leader at the UN meeting in Dubai, Kaisa Kosonen, on Sunday. She has never felt so much pressure and energy for this before.
She also referred to a joint call from 106 countries to phase out fossil fuels – including the EU and many African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. There is now strong pressure from Latin America and from the alliance of small island states that are seriously threatened by rising sea levels as a result of global warming.
Kosonen acknowledged that there is still considerable resistance to ambitious decisions to phase out fossil fuels – “with Saudi Arabia at the forefront of the opposition,” as she said. The option that remains on the table is that there will be a blockade and no decision at all on the issue that is hotly debated in Dubai. Some developing countries are also worried about how they can achieve the energy transition to renewable energies on their own.
The conference, with about 97,000 participants, is scheduled to end on Tuesday. In recent years, however, it has always been extended, usually for a day or two.