![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gapki.id\/en\/dir-site\/uploads\/2023\/12\/COP28_businesstoday.in_.jpg?resize=939%2C525&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\nDUBAI – Countries at the COP28 climate conference are considering calling for a formal phase-out of fossil fuels as part of the UN summit’s final deal to fight global warming, according to a draft negotiating text seen on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Research published on Tuesday showed global carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels are set to hit a record high this year, exacerbating climate change and fueling more destructive extreme weather.<\/p>\n
The draft of what could be the final agreement from COP28, published by the UN climate body, kicks off negotiations around what is considered the summit’s defining issue: whether countries will agree to eventually end the use of fossil fuels, or fight to preserve a role for them.<\/p>\n
On the COP28 main stage, the chief executives of several major energy firms argued in favor of oil and gas, and sought to highlight their climate-friendly credentials such as cutting the greenhouse gas methane.<\/p>\n
“We are big guys and we can do big things. We can deliver results and we will have to report them very soon,” said Jean Paul Prates, CEO of Brazil’s state-run oil company Petrobras. “The energy transition will only be valid if it’s a fair transition,” he added.<\/p>\n
TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne said a transition away from oil and gas would take a long time “so we need absolutely to produce oil and gas in a different way by slashing down emissions. And we can do it, we have the technology”.<\/p>\n
“Of course it has a cost,” he said, “but it’s part of our license to operate, I would say, for the future.”<\/p>\n
At least 2,400 fossil fuel lobbyists registered for this year’s summit, according to an analysis of UN registration data published by Kick Big Polluters Out, an international coalition of climate activist groups.<\/p>\n
The lobbyists outnumbered the 1,609 delegates from the 10 most climate vulnerable countries combined, the group said.<\/p>\n
Negotiating Text<\/strong><\/p>\n The draft text for a COP28 final deal included three options, which delegates from nearly 200 countries will now consider.<\/p>\n The first option in the draft is listed as “an orderly and just phase-out of fossil fuels”. In UN parlance, the word “just” suggests wealthy nations with a long history of fossil fuel burning would phase out faster than poorer countries that are developing their resources now.<\/p>\n The second option calls for “accelerating efforts towards phasing out unabated fossil fuels”. A third option would be to avoid mentioning a fossil fuel phase-out.<\/p>\n The United States, the 27 countries of the European Union and climate-vulnerable small island states are pushing for a fossil fuel phase-out to drive the deep CO2 emissions reductions scientists say are needed this decade to avert disastrous climate change.<\/p>\n Even so, none of the world’s major oil and gas-producing countries have plans to eventually stop drilling for those fuels, according to the Net Zero Tracker, an independent data consortium including Oxford University.<\/p>\n “We’re not talking about turning the tap off overnight,” German Climate Envoy Jennifer Morgan said. “What you’re seeing here is a real battle about what energy system of the future we are going to build together.”<\/p>\n Major oil and gas producers including Saudi Arabia and Russia have resisted past proposals for a phase-out.<\/p>\n