2023-11-30 20:28:46
The Atyrau oil refinery, owned by national energy company KazMunayGas, in the city of Atyrau, Kazakhstan, November 15, 2023. TURAR KAZANGAPOV/REUTERS
This is the elephant in the room. A very big elephant. Fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) are responsible for 80% of greenhouse gas emissions, making them the main culprits in the climate crisis that threatens humanity. And yet, over the past three decades, through some incredible sleight of hand, they have never found themselves at the forefront of climate negotiations. It was not until the twenty-eighth world climate conference (COP28), which is due to open on November 30 in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, for the subject of phasing out all fossil fuels to be included in the agenda. the agenda.
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Proof of this taboo, the word “fossil” does not appear in any decision adopted at the end of the COPs until 2021. It does not appear either in the Kyoto protocol of 1997, nor in the Paris agreement of 2015, the two milestones of climate diplomacy. “When we were preparing the Paris agreement, we tried many formulas, including those of a gradual abandonment of fossilsremembers Laurence Tubiana, one of the architects of this text. But this caused a complete blockage. This is why we used the term “greenhouse gas emissions”. »
The agreement provides that States make voluntary commitments to reduce their emissions, in order to limit warming below 2°C, and if possible 1.5°C. Emissions, but also the carbon accounting of each country, are structuring in the negotiation process. “From the beginning, we have counted emissions where they are burned, not where they are produced, specifies Romain Ioualalen, of the NGO Oil Change International. This helped to hide the issue of fossil fuels: as the source of emissions was not included in the framework, we did not talk about it. »
“Special difficulties”
The very nature of the discussions also explains the difficulty in tackling the issue of fossil fuels head-on. Generally speaking, States are particularly reluctant to commit, within the framework of international agreements, to measures having direct consequences on their national policies. Since the establishment of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992, countries have primarily worked to agree on broad goals. With the idea that everyone would then be free to decide how to implement them.
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