World can’t ‘unplug’ existing energy system: COP28 head

RIYADH: The president of the upcoming COP28 climate talks in Dubai called on Sunday for governments to abandon “fantasies” such as hastily ditching existing energy infrastructure in pursuit of climate goals.

“We cannot unplug the energy system of today before we build the new system of tomorrow. It is simply not practical or possible,” Sultan Al Jaber said during the opening session of Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Climate Week, a UN-organised conference hosted in the Saudi capital Riyadh. “We must separate facts from fiction, reality from fantasies, impact from ideology, and we must ensure that we avoid the traps of division and distraction.” Much of international climate diplomacy revolves around the thorny issue of how and when to quit fossil fuels.

At COP26 in Glasgow in 2021, countries agreed to phase down “unabated coal”, the first time a fossil fuel was explicitly mentioned in a final text. But efforts since then to extend such a target to all fossil fuels have foundered, most recently at last month´s G20 summit in India.

Climate activists have criticised the appointment of Jaber to lead the COP28 talks which kick off in Dubai in November, given that he is also head of the Emirati state-owned oil firm ADNOC.

But Jaber has garnered the support of COP parties including US climate envoy John Kerry, partly by emphasising his belief that “the phase-down of fossil fuels is inevitable”. Energy officials in the United Arab Emirates and other oil-producing countries -- notably Saudi Arabia, the world´s biggest oil exporter -- have argued for continued investments in fossil fuels to ensure energy security even as they eye an eventual transition away from them.

The vast and fractured landscape of climate finance is the other major stumbling block in climate negotiations.

Developing countries least responsible for climate change are seeking money from richer polluters to adapt to its increasingly destructive and expensive consequences.