COP28 embarks on its eleventh day, with the release of a draft agreement stirring controversy amid ongoing challenges in achieving a fossil fuel phase-out. The United Nations-led climate summit, COP28, extended into its eleventh day, well beyond the scheduled midday conclusion. The release of a draft agreement on Monday, calling for the reduction of fossil fuel consumption and production in a just, orderly, and equitable manner, triggered dissatisfaction among countries advocating for a swift phase-out of coal, oil, and gas.
Tina Stege, the climate envoy for the Marshall Islands, criticized the draft as a “meaningless wish list” that questions the science and falls short of addressing the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5℃. With Earth on track to set a record for the hottest year, concerns about the impact on human health and the rise of costly extreme weather events intensified.
Despite European efforts to strengthen the document, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock acknowledged the difficulty of reaching a consensus by midday Tuesday. Bangladesh’s climate envoy, Saber Chowdhury, announced plans for a revised text, taking into account participants’ feedback, to be presented on Tuesday morning.
The final decisions at COPs require consensus, but activists expressed fears that objections from major oil producers, such as Saudi Arabia, may have diluted the text. Saudi Arabia’s Noura Alissa emphasized the deal must work for all, avoiding favoritism among countries.
Developing nations, including Botswana, resisted a fossil-fuel phaseout, citing the unfairness of wealthy nations denying them the same opportunities they had to use and profit from coal, oil, and gas. China and the US, the top contributors to planet-warming emissions, opposed the draft text, with concerns raised about the absence of peak emissions targets by 2025.
The 21-page document notably lacked explicit references to oil and natural gas, mentioning coal only twice. Carbon capture, a debated emissions reduction technology, received a single mention.
As COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber urged action, criticism mounted, with former US Vice President and climate activist Al Gore describing the draft as a potential failure. Despite a round of applause for US climate envoy John Kerry’s impassioned remarks against the insufficient language on fossil fuels, activists confronted him, demanding more substantial action for the sake of their future.
About National Carbon Monitoring Centre (NCMC)
The National Carbon Monitoring Centre is a vehicle for reporting on carbon stocks and their changes as well as coordinating the national MRV processes for the Government of Tanzania. The goal of the Centre is to enable Tanzania to actively participate and benefit from possible future international carbon trading mechanisms to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The core services of the Centre are:
- To manage, develop, and sustain operations of the national GHG inventory and REDD+ MRV systems and facilitate validation of results for the UNFCCC and International community in collaboration with VPO;
- To maximize the usefulness of the data generated and develop different programmes and projects with technical GHGs and REDD+ MRV components and define steps in MRV training, research, consultancies and dissemination
- To coordinate national GHG inventory and national forest inventories
- To harness available national capacity and support from regional and international expertise to operationalize the GHGs and REDD+ Inventory System; and
- To advise policies related to GHG emissions and mitigation actions.
For more information visit NCMC
