Stark warning on emissions as leaders split on climate goals at COP29

Global leaders offered competing views on how
to tackle climate change at UN-led talks Wednesday as a new report warned the
world must reach carbon neutrality much sooner than planned.

Planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions from oil, gas and coal rose to a new
record high this year, according to preliminary research from an
international network of scientists at the Global Carbon Project.

The report came as leaders gathered in Azerbaijan for COP29 climate talks
aimed at reaching a deal on boosting funding to help poorer nations adapt to
climate shocks and transition to cleaner energy.

The research found that to keep the Paris agreement’s ambitious goal of
limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius in sight, the world would now need to
reach net-zero CO2 emissions by the late 2030s — instead of 2050.

The warning also follows concerns about the future of the fight against
climate change following the election of Donald Trump.

Trump, who has vowed to again pull the United States out of the Paris
agreement, named his head of the Environmental Protection Agency Tuesday with
a mandate to slash pollution regulations.

Some leaders in Baku defended fossil fuels during two days of speeches while
others from countries plagued by climate disasters warned that they were
running out of time.

– ‘Slower’ path –

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called for a “realistic global outlook”
on Wednesday, saying that world population growth will boost energy
consumption demand.

“It is equally a priority that decarbonisation takes into consideration our
production and social system’s sustainability,” she said.

“We must protect nature, with man at its core. An approach that is too
ideological and not pragmatic on this matter risks taking us off the road to
success,” the far-right leader said.

“Currently there is no single alternative to fossil fuel supply.”

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called for a “smart” Green Deal, the
European Union’s ambitious climate plan which aims to make the bloc carbon-
neutral by 2050.

“We cannot drive ourselves into industrial oblivion,” the conservative leader
said.

“We need to ask hard questions about a path that goes very fast, at the
expense of our competitiveness, and a path that goes somewhat slower, but
allows our industry to adapt and to thrive,” he said.

Their views contrasted with leaders from countries beset by climate
catastrophes and rising sea levels.

“Tuvalu sincerely hopes that this COP’s concluding decisions will deliver a
clear signal that the world is promptly phasing out fossil fuel,” said the
Pacific island’s Prime Minister Feleti Penitala Teo.

“For Tuvalu and similarly placed countries, there is simply no time to
waste,” he said.

– Money fight –

As leaders spoke, negotiators released a fresh draft of a deal with a raft of
options to raise funding for poorer countries, while leaving unresolved
sticking points that have long delayed an agreement.

Most developing countries favour an annual commitment from wealthy countries
of at least $1.3 trillion, according to the latest draft of the long-sought
climate finance pact.

This figure is more than 10 times the $100 billion annually that a small pool
of developed countries — among them the US, the EU and Japan — currently
pay.

Some donors are reluctant to promise large new amounts of public money from
their budgets at a time when they face economic and political pressure at
home.

The prime minister of the hurricane-vulnerable Bahamas, Philip Davis, said
small island nations have spent 18 times more on debt repayment than they
have received in climate finance.

“The world has found the ability to finance wars, the ability to mobilise
against pandemics,” Davis said.

“Yet when it comes to addressing the most profound crisis of our time, the
very survival of nations, where is that same ability?” (BSS/AFP)