UN climate talks in Dubai on Tuesday ran past a host-imposed deadline for a deal as at-risk nations voiced fury over a proposed compromise that stops short of phasing out fossil fuels.
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COP28 countries set to continue negotiations beyond host-set deadline
After another late night of haggling, there was no sign that the COP28 talks on a draft agreement to reduce fossil fuel use were anywhere near completion, with negotiators waiting for a fresh text after wide criticism of a draft released Monday.
A deadline set by the Emirati hosts of the Dubai climate summit passed at 11am local time on Tuesday without a deal, with negotiators expected to work overtime after fury on a proposal that stops short of phasing out fossil fuels.
“We have time and we are prepared to stay a little longer,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said.
The team from the Marshall Islands – a low laying Pacific archipelago, threatened with submersion – vowed to stay until the end. It’s negotiator, John Silk, said that his country “did not come here to sign our death warrant”.
Campaigners had hoped the COP28 summit – set in a glitzy metropolis built on petrodollars – would take the historic step of calling for the first time for a global phase-out of fossil fuels, which account for three-quarters of greenhouse gas emissions blamed for the planetary crisis.
But the latest draft of the 21-page text put forward by COP28 President Sultan Al Jaber – himself head of the UAE’s national oil company – does not go so far as to demand action on fossil fuels, only presenting measures that nations “could” take.
(Cross Talk India with AFP, AP and Reuters)
