Bill Hare,a climate scientist and director of the think-tank Climate Analytics,welcomed Bowen’s strong language on ending the use of fossil fuels but said there were concerns about the use of abatement in the text of the agreement being negotiated at the conference.
But he said it was broadly accepted that abatement used to capture emissions from some industrial processes like making cement and fertiliser,rather than in energy production,would be necessary as the world decarbonised.
Bowen,who is chairing one of the negotiating blocs at the COP that includes Australia,Canada,Norway and the US,met with Pacific ministers on Saturday to discuss the negotiations and lay out his efforts to arrive at an outcome rather than allow the talks to collapse.
Leaving the majlis meeting,Bowen said he had been working closely with the Pacific ministers and that they had “a high degree of alignment”.
Later in the day he said:“Whether we succeed or not,we will know in the next 24 hours or so,but we will leave nothing on the field. We came to this COP determined to return Australia’s place as a respected,constructive leader,as we should as a country with great economic potential as a renewable.”
Speaking at the majlis on behalf of Like-Minded Group of Developing Countries,which includes China and India alongside oil producers such as Saudi Arabia and Syria,Bolivia’s negotiator,Diego Pacheco,accused nations including Australia of hypocrisy.
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“There is a lot of procrastination,a lot of protectionism… a lot of hypocrisy,lies and injustice. Several countries are saying they want to phase out fossil fuels and those are countries that are in fact expanding fossil fuel production in the world — US,Australia,Norway,Canada and many others.”
Bowen said he was not offended by the comments. “I didn’t take particular offence because it was well in keeping with Bolivia’s well-known views about North-South relations,” he said.
“I did point out that,you know,every country has things at stake. We’re fossil fuel exporter,we’ve got things at stake,we also see the economic opportunities for our country,and we see the opportunity for us to work with other countries on their decarbonisation journey.”
Jennifer Morgan,the former head of Greenpeace who is now serving as Germany’s climate envoy was asked about her view of the role Saudi Arabia and Iran were playing in blocking an agreement on phasing out fossil fuels.
She said:“I hope that they were able to listen to other exporting countries of fossil fuels,like Australia,like Colombia,and also be actively looking at how they can diversify and also support the phase out of fossil fuels”.
The fight over fossil fuel language has been brewing for months,if not years.
At last year’s COP more than 80 nations backed a call for a “phase down” that was torpedoed by a group led by Saudi Arabia. Others pushed for a tougher “phase out”.
As temperature records have shattered and a global stocktake has shown the world off track to meet targets,a renewed push for the measure picked up pace this year.
In April,G7 nations agreed to push for an accelerated phase out of “unabated fossil fuels”. A later G20 meeting failed to come to consensus,with Saudi Arabia and Russia again raising objections.
On Friday news broke that OPEC,the cartel of oil producing nations,had written to member states urging them not to agree to a phase out.
“I think they’re panicking,” Alden Meyer,an analyst with climate think tank E3G told AP. “Maybe the Saudis can’t do on their own what they’ve been doing for 30 years and block the process.”