EU wrangles over negotiating stance for COP28 climate summit (updated)

Fossil

16/10/2023 09:42

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      Ministers meet to agree EU's COP28 negotiating position
    

        * 
      Countries split over strength of fossil fuel phase-out
    

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      EU stance may set the tone for COP28 ambition
    

  
 (Adds Dutch, Maltese, Swedish ministers' comments, Polish
election result)
    By Kate Abnett
       BRUSSELS, Oct 16 (Reuters) - 
    EU countries' climate ministers meet on Monday to decide the
bloc's negotiating position for this year's COP28 summit but
they are still split over some key issues, such as how hard to
push for a global deal to phase out fossil fuels.
    The European Union is typically one of the most ambitious
negotiators at the annual United Nations climate talks, where
nearly 200 countries negotiate efforts to fight global warming. 
     A central decision will be whether countries at the COP,   
  which begins on Nov. 30 in Dubai, agree for the first time to
phase out fossil fuels. Burning coal, oil and gas produces
greenhouse gases that are the main cause of climate change.
    Around 10 of the EU's 27 member countries including Denmark,
France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Slovenia want the
bloc to demand a phase-out of all fossil fuels, EU diplomats
told Reuters.
        "If you listen to all the scientists it is rather clear
that we need to phase out all fossil fuels," said Dutch Climate
Minister Rob Jetten, who urged the EU to be "the most ambitious
bloc" on the issue at COP28.
  
    A similar number of countries - including the Czech
Republic, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Poland and Slovakia - are more
cautious. 
    They want a phase-out only of "unabated" fossil fuels -
leaving a window for countries to keep burning coal, gas and oil
if they use technology to "abate" - meaning capture - the
resulting emissions.
        Malta's Environment Minister Miriam Dalli said the aim
was to keep open this option "for sectors that are difficult to
decarbonise", which could include CO2-intensive industries such
as chemicals and cement that have limited options to curb
emissions.
  
    EU countries must agree their negotiating position
unanimously, meaning one government can block it. 
        
  
        POLISH ELECTION
  
        Governments were also digesting an election 
    exit poll
     from Poland, which suggested the ruling nationalist
government may have lost its majority, paving the way for more
pro-EU opposition parties to form a government.
  
        Poland has been a key opponent among EU countries of
certain climate policies. It took Brussels 
    to court
     this year to attempt to overturn some of them.
  
        "All ambitious leaders of climate in Europe are very
carefully watching the development in Poland right now," Swedish
Climate Minister Romina Pourmokhtari said.
  
    The EU split reflects simmering global tensions. EU
countries opposing a full phase-out include poorer nations who
fear the impact of weaning their economies off fossil fuels.
    Fossil fuel producers and consumers - some of whom, like
Saudi Arabia, have blocked attempts to agree a phase-out in
recent meetings including this year's G20 summit - are expected
to offer similar resistance at the COP28 summit.
    A draft of the EU's negotiating position, seen by Reuters,
would call for a "global phase-out of  unabated  fossil fuels
and a peak in their consumption already in the near term". 
    The brackets around "unabated" indicate EU countries have
not yet agreed on the word.
    Fossil fuel subsidies are another sore point, with wealthy
western nations including France and the Netherlands seeking an
EU call to phase them out by 2025. Fossil fuel-reliant economies
including Poland do not want a date.

 (Reporting by Kate Abnett, editing by Jan Strupczewski, Emelia
Sithole-Matarise and Deborah Kyvrikosaios)
 ((Kate.Abnett@thomsonreuters.com;))