Today is the big day: the Leaders’ Summit! World leaders are stalking the halls and ECO is sure that they’ll be bringing new, renewable energy. There are lots of new faces here, in the biggest Blue Zone ever, so ECO is sure we won’t be hearing from the same old tired fossils. ECO is excited.
But what will these renewed, energised leaders say at the Summit?
ECO is sure that they all know fossil fuels are the largest driver of climate change, responsible for 86% of carbon dioxide emissions in the past decade, according to the IPCC. Faced with the climate emergency, the International Energy Agency has made it clear that any expansion of fossil fuels beyond existing fields and mines is unnecessary and incompatible with 1.5 °C.
Yet ECO knows that five of the world’s richest nations are on track to be responsible for 51% of all oil and gas expansion between now and 2050.
Will those countries’ leaders (or sometimes vice-leaders) call for a phase out of all fossil fuels? Will they acknowledge that the Convention principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities require them to take the lead in ending fossil fuel production and use? That the first step to phasing out fossil fuels is to stop approving any new fossil fuel exploration and extraction?
Will they be able to lead the way and ensure that developed countries are the first to phase out fossil fuels, by 2040 the latest?
At COP27, 80 countries supported language for a fossil fuel phase out but were defeated by a vocal minority and reluctant presidency. Since then, millions of people have lost their lives and livelihoods due to lethal heat and extreme weather events. Over 16 million hectares of forest have burned in northern Canada alone. Flooding around the globe has been unprecedented.
Therefore ECO is also wondering: Will world leaders make this a historic COP by:
- committing to at least tripling community-beneficial, nature-positive renewable energy by 2030 – and ensuring this displaces fossil energy?
- doubling the global energy efficiency capacity and reducing total energy consumption, especially in wealthy nations?
- breaking free of the relentless lobbying of fossil fuel companies and committing to a fair, fast, full, and funded phase out of fossil fuels?
ECO (along with the rest of the world) is watching closely to see whether loopholes and sneaky caveats will be included in the Leader’s statements. For example, will they dare to mention that dirty word, “unabated”? Will they point to Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), despite the IEA and the IPCC documenting CCS’s “history of unmet expectations” and its disproportionately high costs for very limited theoretical reductions? ECO really hopes that world leaders understand the overwhelming science, and recognise that we need absolute production and emissions decline in order to meet climate goals.