Tony Blair, when signing the pact to dissolve the IRA, stated that A good agreement involves accepting the same word that the parties interpret differently. The Dubai Climate Summit It ended this way. The expression “leave behind” means for some an irreversible step that others interpret as a sine die extension. The truth is that for the first time the Summit ends up giving names and surnames to those mainly responsible for the climate crisis: fossil fuels and shamelessly advocates for renewable energies. The other key is the definition of the energy transition that aims to achieve zero emissions in 2050 and that they demand must be “fair.” Some nostalgic for the stopped clocks on the summits of Paris and Rio long for those times to disparage the Dubai agreement. There is a positive reading: environmental awareness is already unstoppable so that no one discusses the what but the how. This is our balance as a newspaper committed to the planet that we have told from the front line the result of the Summit with the help of our expert, Valentina Raffio.
Converting fossil fuels (oil, gas and coal) into fossils means a Copernican turn of the global economy that has winners and losers. So achieving that ideal of justice is not easy. Those who have already renounced the fossil fuel economy (such as the Asturian mining basins) are now demanding of those who intend to resist, especially the petrodynasties. There are many voices, for example, that warn of the costs that championing the energy change may have for Europe due to the loss of competitiveness that it may mean in the short term. But the threat is also an opportunity: Europe has been the main beneficiary of cheap energy produced with fossil fuels and that accumulated capital has to know how to invest to lead the new stage. And that does not depend on Dubai but on the governments and citizens of the EU themselves to accept, for example, that the capital accumulated by oil exploitation be invested in this continent. We cannot allow ourselves to become fossilized with oil, gas and coal.