Sultan Al Jaber, president of the next COP28, at the opening of the Middle East and North Africa Climate Week, October 8, 2023 in Riyadh (AFP/Féché Nureldine)
The president of the next UN climate conference, COP28, on Sunday called on governments to abandon their “fantasies”, such as the hasty abandonment of existing energy infrastructure to meet climate targets.
“We cannot unplug today’s energy system before building tomorrow’s system. This is simply neither practical nor possible,” Sultan Al Jaber said at the opening of Middle Climate Week. -East and North Africa, a conference organized by the United Nations in Riyadh.
“We must separate fact from fiction, reality from fantasy,” he added.
The thorny question facing the international community is how and when to abandon fossil fuels, as global temperatures approach the threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels .
The objective of not exceeding this threshold was set by the Paris agreement in 2015.
Opening of the Middle East and North Africa Climate Week, October 8, 2023 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (AFP/Féché Nureldine)
Climate activists have criticized the appointment of Sultan Al Jaber, president of the United Arab Emirates oil giant ADNOC, to head the COP28 which opens on November 30 in Dubai.
Mr. Jaber, however, won the support of COP participants, including US climate envoy John Kerry, in part because he says he is convinced that “the gradual reduction of fossil fuels is inevitable.”
Energy sector officials in the United Arab Emirates and other oil-producing countries, including Saudi Arabia, have called for continued investment in fossil fuels to ensure energy security, while ultimately considering a transition towards the abandonment of these fuels.
Financing the fight against global warming is the other big challenge in the climate negotiations.
Investment needs for the transition of emerging countries (AFP/Archives/Valentin RAKOVSKY, Sabrina BLANCHARD)
Developing countries, least responsible for climate change, are seeking money from wealthier polluters to adapt to its consequences.
In 2009, rich countries committed to providing one hundred billion dollars per year to developing countries but this objective was not achieved in 2020 as planned.
“Old promises must be kept, including the one hundred billion dollars made more than a decade ago,” Jaber said on Sunday.
– “At the crossroads” –
In 2022, COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, concluded with the creation of a “loss and damage” fund to which countries will contribute to help the poorest. “We must ensure that the loss and damage fund promised in Sharm el-Sheikh becomes a reality in Dubai,” Mr. Jaber stressed.
Opening of the Middle East and North Africa Climate Week, October 8, 2023 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (AFP/Féché Nureldine)
The Riyadh conference aims to “highlight the challenges and solutions in a region among the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change,” organizers said in a statement on Sunday.
In this region already faced with high temperatures and a water shortage, more than 60% of the population has “very limited, or even non-existent, access to drinking water”, underlines the press release, adding that “the increase “higher temperatures are expected to lead to more persistent and severe drought.”
Mr. Jaber spoke of extreme phenomena such as Storm Daniel, responsible for deadly floods in eastern Libya in September.
“Climate change is not a threat lurking around the corner, the Mena region knows this from experience with heatwaves and water shortages,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UN Program United for the Environment (UNEP).
For Simon Stiell, UN executive secretary for climate change, the region finds itself “at a crossroads, facing not only the devastating effects of climate change, but also the challenge of transitioning its economies to ensure prosperity in a world aligned with 1.5°C”.
© 2023 AFP
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