The Squiz

The United Nations-hosted climate talks in Dubai have headed into overtime, with Australia part of a group of nations refusing to sign a proposed deal on phasing out the use of fossil fuels. Nations including the US, UK, New Zealand, Norway, and Israel have joined Oz in pushing for an agreement that strengthens the commitment to do that, describing what’s being proposed by the conference leaders as “grossly insufficient”. On the other side of the argument are nations including China, India, and Saudi Arabia – they support the version which suggests countries “could” phase out fossil fuels.

That’s not what I was expecting… 

Yeah, because it seems like Australia’s always in trouble at these meetings over our role as the world’s third-largest fossil fuel exporter… So to explain, at the annual COP summit, countries are asked to agree on a big joint statement – and this year, the main question was whether an agreement on reducing or eliminating fossil fuel production could be reached. It’s tricky, so the version conference leaders put to all 198 countries was an agreement to “take actions that could include” a reduction of fossil fuels. Samoan delegate Cedric Schuster called it a “death certificate.” And the Albanese Government’s Chris Bowen agreed – “I speak as the climate and energy minister of one of the world’s largest fossil fuel exporters. We also live in the Pacific, and we are not going to see our brothers and sisters inundated and their countries swallowed by the seas,” he told the conference.

So Australia’s now for phasing out fossil fuels?

Umm not quite… “We don’t need to phase out fossil fuel emissions,” Bowen said – and the key word in that equation is ‘abatement’. The idea is that fossil fuel use can continue if their emissions are dealt with through measures like carbon capture and storage – but the jury is out on whether that actually works… Bowen and Co want the final statement to include ending “unabated” fossil fuel use – so that’s being discussed as we speak. So COP28, which was meant to be over by now, is still in motion, and negotiators are furiously, umm, negotiating to get a deal that includes more ambitious language to address the cause of the climate crisis. Exciting, huh?