COP28: Fossil fuels agreement elusive as conference enters final days
Global News
The COP28 climate negotiations entered crunch time on Monday with countries set for a final summit face-off over whether to reach a global agreement to phase out fossil fuels.
The COP28 climate negotiations entered crunch time on Monday with countries set for a final summit face-off over whether to reach a global agreement to phase out fossil fuels.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres sought to encourage a consensus, saying a central benchmark of success for COP28 would be whether it yields a deal to reduce coal, oil and gas use fast enough to avert disastrous climate change.
“That doesn’t mean that all countries must phase out fossil fuels at the same time,” he told reporters at the Dubai summit, which is scheduled to end on Tuesday but could go on longer if negotiations drag on.
Guterres echoed a call from many developing nations that have said any COP28 deal to overhaul the world’s energy system must be matched with sufficient financial support to help them do this.
“The gap does not relate to ambition, but the gap relates to the question of means of implementation,” South African Environment Minister Barbara Creecy told other ministers on Sunday.
A coalition of more than 100 countries including oil and gas producers the United States, Canada and Norway, as well as the European Union and climate-vulnerable island nations, want an agreement that includes language to “phase out” fossil fuels, a feat not achieved in 30 years of the UN summits.
The emissions from burning fossil fuels are by far the main driver of climate change.
Canadian Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault told Reuters a deal on phasing out fossil fuels was being opposed by OPEC, the club of oil-producing countries.
Nearly 2,200 layoff notices went to workers in Washington and another 220 in South Carolina, the two states where Boeing builds commercial airliners.
The deadly haze covered monuments and high-rise buildings in the capital of New Delhi, with visibility so low that airlines warned of delays.
The death is being investigated by federal authorities but "the preliminary cause" has been ruled an accident.
The incident took place more than a month ago, on October 13, but it wasn't reported until the British tabloids got wind of the story.
Health officials said Saturday they have confirmed the first U.S. case of a new form of mpox that was first seen in eastern Congo.
Washington is easing limits on what Ukraine can strike with U.S.-made weaponry, U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Sunday.
Ukraine plans to conduct its first long-range attacks in the coming days, sources said, without revealing details due to operational security concerns.
Concerns storm surges could raise water levels between one and three feet above ground level as Tropical Storm Sara makes landfall in Belize.
Air defenses could be heard engaging drones over Kyiv in the night, and a series of powerful blasts rang out across the city as the missile attack was under way in the morning.
John Kirton, head of the G20 Research Group, says the forum is the main tool countries have to prepare for the second Donald Trump presidency.
Israeli airstrikes on the village of Khreibeh in the Baalbek District of eastern Lebanon killed six people on Saturday, including three children the Lebanese health ministry said.