Cop 28 director-general Majid al-Suwaidi today told Argus that the Cop 28 UN climate conference's goal should be "keeping global temperature under 1.5°C" and "tackling emissions", as negotiations enter their last stretch with fossil fuel drawing much of the focus.
Countries are in the final days of negotiations on the global stocktake — a five-yearly undertaking to measure global progress against Paris Agreement goals. Acknowledging that it was up to the parties to decide on the specifics of the text on energy and fossil fuel, al Suwaidi warned that a "focus on words" should not get in the way of negotiations. "The goal should be about tackling emission and should be about [limiting] global temperature [rise] under 1.5°C," he said. "It should be about making sure that we are delivering climate action and delivering finance," he added.
A draft text for the global stocktake — which is going to be the main outcome of this summit — was released on 8 December. It is described as "refined building blocks" designed to act as a starting point for ministerial discussions. The text contains five options on language for fossil fuels — including four mentioning a phase-out. One option is to have nothing on fossil fuels at all in the energy section.
Al-Suwaidi said that is still too early to tell what the outcome could be, but stressed that Cop 28 president Sultan al-Jaber said from the beginning that parties had to tackle energy during this summit, including "how we talk about fossil fuels".
Al-Jaber, who also heads Abu Dhabi state-owned oil firm Adnoc, made his fossil fuel goals and timeline clear in his "vision" for Cop 28. He called for a "responsible phase-down of all fossil fuels, [that] accelerates the phase-down of all unabated coal, and leads to an energy system free of unabated fossil fuels in the middle of this century".
"We have given the negotiators the mandate to discuss it and decide how they want to treat it," al-Suwaidi said.
Al-Suwaidi maintains his optimism for a positive outcome in the text, drawing on the numerous meetings the presidency has held with all parties. "We feel the parties are telling us that they want to have a positive outcome when it comes to energy and mitigation," he said.
"I feel confident that the negotiators will come together and bring us an outcome that we all want to see," he added.
Arab group
Asked about the position of the Arab States in the negotiations, al-Suwaidi said that the Cop presidency team's engagement with the group has only been positive. The UN negotiating group includes major oil producing countries such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iraq, Algeria, Egypt and Libya.
They have been supportive to the Cop presidency, al-Suwaidi said. "They are constructive, they are helpful".
"We try to find common ground, we develop a consensus and we put forward an agreement that works for everybody," he said.
"It is important because these issues [fossil fuels-related goals] are complicated," he said, adding that they affect countries and economies.
"I think that we as a Cop presidency are really pleased about how the negotiators are working."
