DUBAI – A draft of a potential climate deal at the COP28 summit on Dec 11 offered various options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but stopped short of the full “phase out” of fossil fuels that many nations have demanded.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said a central benchmark of success for COP28 would be whether it yields a deal to reduce coal, oil and gas use fast enough to avert disastrous climate change.

“That doesn’t mean that all countries must phase out fossil fuels at the same time,” he told reporters at the Dubai summit, which is scheduled to end on Dec 12 but could go on longer if negotiations drag on.

A new draft of a COP28 agreement, published by the United Arab Emirates’ presidency of the summit, proposed various options but did not refer to a “phase out” of all fossil fuels, which had been included in a previous draft.

The draft deal listed eight options that countries “could” use to cut emissions, including by: “reducing both consumption and production of fossil fuels, in a just, orderly and equitable manner so as to achieve net zero by, before, or around 2050“.

Other actions listed included tripling renewable energy capacity by 2030, “rapidly phasing down unabated coal” and scaling up technologies, including those to capture CO2 emissions out of the atmosphere.

The COP28 presidency, led by Dr Sultan al-Jaber, described the latest draft version as “a huge step forward”.

“The COP28 presidency has been clear from the beginning about our ambitions. This text reflects those ambitions and is a huge step forward,” the presidency said in a statement.

“Now it is in the hands of the parties, who we trust to do what is best for humanity and the planet,” it added.

Climate campaigners slammed the draft as a major step backwards from previous proposals.

The text “represents a significant regression from previous versions”, said Mr Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at Climate Action Network International.

A coalition of more than 100 countries, including oil and gas producers the United States, Canada and Norway, as well as the European Union and climate-vulnerable island nations, wanted an agreement that included language to phase out fossil fuels, a feat not achieved in 30 years of the UN summits.

The emissions from burning fossil fuels are by far the main driver of climate change.

Sources familiar with the discussions said the UAE came under pressure from Saudi Arabia to drop any mention of fossil fuels from the text.

Negotiators and observers inside the COP28 talks told Reuters that Saudi Arabia, de facto leader of the Opec oil producers’ group, was among the main opponents of a deal to phase out oil and gas. REUTERS