……and realised that on mitigation and finance, there were many changes in the text and new commitments by key nations emerging Thursday night.
Amazingly, the proposal by the Small Island state Tuvalu that all countries will phase out all fossil fuel production and consumption to achieve 100% renewable energy by mid-century was agreed to. It immediately tripled efforts to maintain the 1.5°C survival target domestically and for richer countries to enhance finance significantly to developing countries for mitigation and adaptation. Only Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran, USA and certain EU members like Hungary and Poland looked grumpy. Any attempt to change this global convergence failed – the Egyptian President acted brilliantly and threatened to byline them all. And then an avalanche of new announcements by all the other nations unfolded in an unprecedented wave of solidarity.
Brazil promised a zero deforestation law for the Amazon next year, supported by Congo and Indonesia to do the same. China and India followed by legislating a full phase out law for fossil fuels domestically. Although they favoured 2060, that is a great move away from their initial long-term net-zero target of 2070. The EU, UK, Australia, Canada and even other fossil fuel exporters like Norway, Colombia, UAE, Kuwait and others agreed to stop any new fossil projects as, urged by the IEA. Even more brilliant was the shift by the US – they were seen in a huddle with the Saudis, China, and India studying reports by Oil Change International – and stating in the plenary “…in this wave of enthusiastic progress, we will not stand in the way and will bring to Congress a bill to go even further. To be announced in Dubai. We now understand what 1.5°C and a carbon budget mean and we will legislate a managed phase-out of all existing fossil fuel projects.”
The EU and UK, announced updated NDCs to a 65% GHG reduction by 2030 while India earned praise by promising to be the first country in the world to reach 50% solar energy supported by China to do the same with wind by 2035. ECO could not believe it and thought it was dreaming.
Almost all countries announced support for the poorest countries with full energy access for the people in compliance with all SDGs.
In a breakout session by all major fossil fuel producers, they announced that they will start implementing a 2% tax on all fossil fuel companies’ profits and raise an upstream levy on all fossil fuels mined. All earmarked to help poor countries and communities for adaptation, loss and damage and mitigation.
The show was not over. The major countries harbouring the most billionaires agreed to seriously work towards a wealth tax for the (super) rich and close all tax havens which might deliver hundreds of billions of dollars annually (ECO reported about these ideas earlier).
But then the brutal reality hit. ECO actually woke up. It had all been a dream. Still ECO believes that all of that — or at least major parts of that, since ECO remains humble and realistic, would make a good mitigation and finance agreement here in Egypt.
We have eight years to cut CO2 and other GHG by up to 50%. Read the IPCC reports, the SPM if you have limited attention spans. Governments, if you are serious about 1.5°C, you certainly cannot do without these measures. In the remaining hours we are all TUUUVALUUU!