Fossil fuel debate delays big report on climate solutions

  • Scientists and governments debate against the clock the approval of the latest analysis of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

  • The final wording of the text, which was to be presented this Monday, has not managed to add the consensus of the countries

Everything was prepared so that this Monday, after years of work and months of negotiations, the third and last report of the Intergovernmental Panel of Experts on Climate Change (IPCC); a scientific and technical analysis focused on the necessary measures to stop the climate catastrophe. But this weekend, in the final text review process in which all countries must approve line by line the content of the report, the controversy over the end of fossil fuels has blocked the approval of the document. As this newspaper has learned, the debate has stalled due to a vocabulary question. Because, although the scientific opinion on the end of oil, gas and coal is overwhelming, the countries have not been able to reach a consensus on the exact words to express this premise.

It is not the first time that the dispute over the future of fossil fuels hinders the signing of a climate agreement. At the last Climate Summit in Glasgow (COP26), without going any further, the negotiations also got stuck in this same controversy. For the first time in the history of this meeting, the countries agreed to include a message about the need to reduce the consumption of coal, oil and gas in the coming decades. But after two weeks of tense debate, the message ended up being diluted due to pressure from the world’s main coal producers. India and China, for example, refused to sign an agreement calling for the definitive end of these energy sources and asked to change the text so that the pact was ‘reduce’ and not ‘eliminate’ its use. His argument, not exempt from controversy, was that not all countries have had the same historical development and that, therefore, it is unfair to demand the definitive end of fossil fuels in all countries equally.

It is not clear if the approval of the last report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has stalled in these same terms but, for the moment, all the rumors point to yes. According to the British newspaper ‘The Guardian’at the moment the debate between scientists and governments has to do, for example, with the text that indicates the phase out of subsidies to fossil fuels. Or with the wording on the role that could be played, in the future, by the use of carbon capture and storage technologies (something that many countries have opted for but that, today, still does not have clear scientific support).

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The agency ‘France24’ argues, based on sources close to the negotiations, that the debate has stalled on financing issues. Specifically, in the funds that should be allocated so that developing countries face the impact of the climate crisis. From the other end of the globe, the Indian medium ‘The Hindu’also points out that developing countries have demanded that the report recognize that cuts in greenhouse gas emissions must be proportional to the historical contribution of each country (which would imply, de facto, that the countries of the global south would have to cut significantly less than the rich states, responsible for up to 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions).

uncertain publication

Yet it is not clear when this report will be published. In theory, as he had advanced from the organization, the text should achieve final approval over the weekend and, later, should be delivered (under embargo) to accredited journalists and media outlets so that they could analyze and break down the information. information. Several press conferences with experts were also planned to comment on the conclusions of this analysis. But come Sunday night, almost two days after the expected date of approval of the text, the organization affirms that the negotiations are still under way. Everything points, then, to the fact that the official presentation of this report (scheduled for this Monday at 11:00 a.m., Spanish peninsular time) will also be delayed.

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