The climate diplomacy priorities of European Union countries this year include a push for a global phasing out of fossil fuels, which the bloc hopes to approve this week after a contentious section on nuclear energy has been rewritten.
Nearly 200 countries will meet to negotiate joint efforts to curb climate change at this year’s U.N. climate summit and the draft aims to set out the EU’s diplomatic priorities before the November conference where the EU would back a global shift away from fossil fuels.
“The shift towards a climate neutral economy will require the global phase-out of unabated fossil fuels,” part of the draft said.
“The EU will systematically promote and call for a global move towards energy systems free of unabated fossil fuels well ahead of 2050.”
Some countries are hoping this year’s COP28 summit could go a step further and get a deal on phasing out the use of CO2-emitting fossil fuels especially oil and gas as agreed at previous U.N. climate talks.
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India’s proposal to this end gained some support at last year’s U.N. climate summit before it was met with opposition by representatives from Saudi Arabia and other oil and gas-rich nations. Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands had pushed for the fossil fuel exit in the EU text, EU diplomats said.
Diplomats from EU countries will attempt to finalise the text on Wednesday, which ministers must then approve formally after it had been stalled by disputes over the role of nuclear energy in the green transition.
At the heart of the disagreement is countries’ inability to agree on whether EU diplomacy should promote low-carbon hydrogen – meaning hydrogen produced from nuclear electricity – or focus on hydrogen produced from renewable energy.
However, the latest draft did not specify which type of hydrogen the EU would promote.
“EU energy diplomacy will promote the development of rules-based, transparent and undistorted global hydrogen markets,” it said.
Story was adapted from Reuters.
