….Climate expert blasts COP28 climate draft for ‘weak wording’
A new draft for the final text of the UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai no longer includes a phase-out of coal, oil and gas.
The 21-page paper, which was published on Monday, only mentions a reduction in the consumption and production of fossil fuels.
In a previous version, the phase-out was still mentioned as one of several options.
Environmental organisations reacted with disappointment.
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Jan Kowalzig, a senior climate expert with Oxfam, spoke of a very “weak wording” that was moving away from fossil fuels.
And even the other targets tripling renewable energies and doubling energy efficiency were not mentioned as a goal, but only as a possible measure. “COP28 must not end like this,’’ he said.
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The 1.5-degree Celsius target set by the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement would “probably be thrown out of the window” with this draft, “in spite of assurances to the contrary elsewhere in the text,” Kowalzig added.
Kowalzig urged the European Union not to agree with the declaration, developing countries and their allies must demand significant improvements, he said.
