Draft climate summit document floats fossil fuel phaseout but light on timeline details

A draft global stocktake from the COP28 international climate summit falls short of what environmental advocates have hoped for, listing possible options for an international phase-out of fossil fuels but without concrete timelines.

The draft text released Friday includes four options for a fossil fuel phaseout, with no mention of a more gradual phase down as an option. The first is a phaseout “in line with the best available science.” The second involves a phaseout in keeping with the best available science as well as pathways outlined by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to avoid more than 1.5 degrees of warming and the provisions of the Paris Climate Agreement.

The third option involves a phaseout of “unabated” fossil fuels that nonetheless “recogniz[es] the need for a peak in their consumption in this decade and underlin[es] the importance for the energy sector to be predominantly free of fossil fuels well ahead of 2050.” The fourth also involves phasing out unabated fossil fuel development while rapidly cutting back on their use to secure net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by the middle of the century.

Environmental groups called the draft insufficient.

“In the mad dash to the COP28 finale, even the best option in the latest text fails to commit countries to any tangible deadlines for a fossil fuel phaseout,” said Jean Su, energy justice director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “We need an explicit 2030 deadline to phase down all fossil fuels to near zero, with the United States and other major fossil fuel producers at the leading edge. It’s crunch time for these talks and most importantly for our climate. President Biden has the legal tools to halt new fossil fuel project approvals and phase out existing production on federal lands and waters. We need to see that leadership in action here at COP.”

The global stocktake is a core element of the annual COP summit that analyzes international progress toward the goals of the Paris agreement. The draft comes amid a COP summit that has faced considerable controversy due to its location in Dubai, a major oil producer, as well as comments by the United Arab Emirates’ Sultan al-Jaber casting doubt on the validity of climate science.