COP28 on the home straight - Germany wants more ambition

World Climate Conference - COP28 on the home straight - Germany wants more ambition

Shortly before the planned end of the World Climate Conference in Dubai, Germany, the EU and dozens of other countries want to push through far-reaching improvements to the planned final text. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and EU chief negotiator Wopke Hoekstra rated the draft from the host from the United Arab Emirates on Monday evening as disappointing and inadequate. Representatives of environmental organizations expressed their dismay and outrage. The background to this is that the phase-out of coal, oil and gas demanded by more than 100 countries no longer appears in the text - unlike in previous versions.

The two-week negotiations between the almost 200 governments are scheduled to end this Tuesday at noon. As has almost always been the case over the past 20 years, the conference could now go into extra time. Baerbock said: "It is difficult to reach a result here by midday tomorrow." However, this is not a problem for the European delegation. "We have time. And we are prepared to stay a little longer."

A number of countries, including oil-rich Saudi Arabia as well as China, Iraq, India and Russia, have recently expressed reservations about a decision to phase out fossil fuels.

"Our children deserve this"

Later in the evening, all heads of delegation met to discuss the muddled situation. Hoekstra and German Climate Secretary Jennifer Morgan also met with the High Ambition Coalition - a group of industrialized and particularly vulnerable countries that wants to lead the way with ambition in the fight against the climate crisis.

Hoekstra wrote on Platform X that the 1.5-degree target agreed in Paris in 2015 for maximum global warming compared to pre-industrial times must be kept alive. "This is what science demands, and this is what our children deserve." The chief negotiator of the Marshall Islands, which are threatened by rising sea levels, John Silk, said that they had not come to Dubai "to sign our death warrant".

According to Baerbock, the text lacks, among other things, concrete instruments to get on the 1.5-degree path at all and to push for the necessary energy transition, especially in many regions of Africa, Asia and Latin America - which these countries had strongly demanded in Dubai. And the passage on fossil fuels falsely suggests that coal, oil and gas could continue to play a decisive role in our future. "Even coal-fired power generation would be acceptable worldwide, as would the construction of new coal-fired power plants - which would then also be contrary to European energy policy."

The managing director of Greenpeace Germany, Martin Kaiser, said he was "truly stunned" that the draft serves the wishes and interests of the oil and gas industry, but not those of the people who are already suffering the most from floods and droughts. Especially when it comes to phasing out fossil fuels, which more than 100 countries have called for, the draft is very non-binding. "If it is adopted in this form, it could cause this conference to fail," warned Kaiser.

"We still have many gaps to close"

From the outset, there was much criticism of the fact that conference president Sultan al-Jaber is also head of the state oil company Adnoc, and that a good 1,400 lobbyists for coal, oil and gas were officially accredited. Al-Jaber said that the time for discussions was now coming to an end, but also indicated in the evening that he still expected improvements to be made to the text. "We still have many gaps to close," he said. "We need to deliver a result that respects science and keeps the 1.5 degree target within reach." He expects the delegates to be highly ambitious on all points - "also with regard to the language on fossil fuels".

Oxfam expert Jan Kowalzig said that, in his opinion, the weak draft text does not even include the other targets - a tripling of renewable energies and a doubling of energy efficiency - as goals, but only as possible measures. "COP28 must not end like this," he warned. Viviane Raddatz, Climate Director of WWF Germany, also said that the draft text was very disappointing and raised fears that this COP could lead to a gigantic failure.