The US will not change course on its landmark commitment to clean energy under legislation last year that funneled billions of dollars to the sector, senators with a bipartisan delegation reassured negotiators at the UN Cop 28 climate conference in Dubai.
US lawmakers last year passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which among other economic objectives is expected to spur up to $3 trillion in clean energy investments.
But some countries involved in negotiating new goals to keep to the targets of the 2015 Paris Agreements at Cop 28 have expressed concern that the result of US presidential elections in November could change the course of spending in the world's second-largest emitter of CO2.
"There are a lot of questions about the scale and the persistence of American investment in the global energy transition and in the fight against climate change," senator Chris Coons (D-Delaware) said. "That will be a sustained effort, regardless of the outcome of our next election."
The only member of the Republican party with the senate delegation, senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), noted that even lawmakers such as herself who did not vote for the IRA now support it.
"We are seeing the benefits that are coming to our country" because of the IRA, she said. And while her state is an oil producer, it is also seeing the effects of climate change such as permafrost thaw, she added.
The IRA has "exceeded our most objective expectations," senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said.
The lawmakers instead pointed to interference from Opec as a bigger cause for concern at the conference, after it reiterated an all-energies approach, a focus on emissions and pointed to carbon capture and storage as a key solution rather than ending fossil fuel use.
"Opec does not want to phase out fossil fuels," Edward Markey (D–Massachusetts) said. "They made that very clear yesterday."
Narrowing options for the final text at Cop 28 on whether to phase out fossil fuels has been a hurdle, with even some countries that strongly support climate action such a oil-producing Brazil shying away from language to try to eliminate the use of fossil fuels entirely.
Murkowski expressed similar concerns, saying that "to move to a phase out I think does not recognize the transition reality" of needed technological innovations and logistical and permitting issues. "Whether the words are out or down or abate, at the end of the day it is really about the actions that come out of it."
