An agreement by countries to phase out fossil fuels would be \u201cone of the most significant events in the history of humanity\u201d, according to\u00a0Al Gore, amid wrangling by governments at Cop28.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It would be a \u201cwelcome surprise\u201d if world leaders agreed at the climate talks to call for an end to fossil fuels, but such a declaration would have \u201cenormous impact\u201d upon the world, Gore told the Guardian at the gathering in the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf there were a decision here to surprise the world to say \u2018OK we get it now, we\u2019ve made enough money, we will get on with what needs to be done to give young people a sense of hope again and stop as much as suffering as possible and start the phase-out of fossil fuels\u2019, it would be one of the most significant events in the history of humanity,\u201d the former US vice-president said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gore, now a prominent advocate for action on the climate crisis, welcomed the\u00a0establishment of a loss and damage fund\u00a0for developing countries worst hit by heatwaves, droughts, floods and other disasters but added the amount of money committed to it by rich countries is a \u201cpittance\u201d and that the crucial element at the Dubai gathering would be an agreement to wind down fossil fuels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere is only one measure of success for Cop28: will it include a commitment to phase out fossil fuels or not,\u201d he said. \u201cIf it does include such a commitment it will be a smashing success; if it does not it will be a failure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than half of the 200 countries that are represented at Cop28 have signalled they would support agreement language that mentions a phase-out of fossil fuels. John Kerry, the US climate envoy, has said it is \u201chard for anybody to understand\u201d why the primary cause of the climate crisis would be allowed to continue, while Ant\u00f3nio Guterres, secretary-general of the UN, urged leaders on Friday to unambiguously back the end of oil, coal and gas. \u201cNot reduce. Not abate. Phase out,\u201d Guterres said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the consensus format of these UN summits means that countries have to all assent to the text of an agreement and it is understood that countries such as Russia, China and Saudi Arabia are uncomfortable with a compact that would call time on fossil fuels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oil companies, many posting record profits, are planning large expansions in drilling, including Adnoc, the national oil company of the UAE which is headed by\u00a0Sultan Al Jaber, who is also president of Cop28. Al Jaber\u00a0has strenuously deniedallegations that he is using the climate summit as a way to further oil and gas deals for Adnoc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gore, however, said that Adnoc is \u201cone of the dirtiest companies, it\u2019s one of the least responsible companies\u201d and that the appointment of Al Jaber to head Cop28 has been damaging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey made a mistake, let\u2019s be honest, in angling to put a fossil fuel company CEO in charge of this Cop28,\u201d he said. \u201cI mean it\u2019s absurd. It\u2019s totally ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An agreement by countries to phase out fossil fuels would be \u201cone of the most significant events in the history of humanity\u201d, according to\u00a0Al Gore, amid wrangling by governments at Cop28. It would be a \u201cwelcome surprise\u201d if world leaders agreed at the climate talks to call for an end to fossil fuels, but such […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":40650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[8473,6349,11746,5569,9386,9322,8440,12175,6695,6732,5787,7162,6569,6665,9643,5491,9293,6345,6685,13036,5612,9237,5441,11973,3805,3457,8160,1364,9030,9321,347,5465,6348,36,594,5140],"class_list":["post-40649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-al-gore","tag-antonio-guterres","tag-appointment","tag-arab","tag-coal","tag-cop28","tag-crisis","tag-developing-countries","tag-dubai","tag-emirates","tag-flood","tag-fossil-fuel","tag-fuel","tag-fuels","tag-fund","tag-gas","tag-ghg","tag-guterres","tag-heatwaves","tag-humanity","tag-money","tag-nio","tag-oil","tag-one","tag-president","tag-russia","tag-saudi","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-success","tag-sultan-al-jaber","tag-uae","tag-un","tag-us","tag-world","tag-who","tag-young"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40649"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40651,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40649\/revisions\/40651"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}