The president of the COP28 called on Tuesday to “triple” by 2030 the global capacity of renewable energy production to help limit global warming.
Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, both head of the COP28 and boss of the oil giant ADNOC, set this ambitious target, with a “doubling again by 2040”, in front of the representatives of more than 40 countries gathered in Berlin.
Within the framework of the Petersberg Climate Dialogue, until Wednesday, they are preparing the COP28 in Dubai scheduled for the end of November. “Please act now,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a video message, for whom “we have looked the other way for too long. There is “no choice” but to reduce emissions, al-Jaber said.
He had already set the target of tripling renewables during closed-door discussions at a G7 meeting in mid-April in Sapporo, Japan.
“Ambitious commitments”
This goal is also advocated by the International Energy Agency (IEA), which estimated in a recent report that renewable energy capacity additions must triple by 2030 compared to 2022 levels. The aim is to deploy globally about 1,200 GW per year, according to the IEA.
In its final declaration, the previous COP, held in 2022 in Egypt, called for “rapid scaling up of clean energy production” and “phasing out of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies”. The Emirati president of the COP28 did not mention the complete exit from fossil fuels, but rather focused on reducing emissions, notably through carbon capture technologies. “Negotiators must go further and form a strong and united coalition in favor of (…) a phase-out of all fossil fuels,” reacted the international NGO 350.org.
Mr. Ahmed al-Jaber said he “expects ambitious, transparent and accountable commitments from countries and companies that will shape parliamentary policies and budgets” at the upcoming COP28. Criticized by NGOs for his dual role as president of the COP and head of an oil company, Mr. al-Jaber pledged that under his presidency, “the negotiations will allow all parties to discuss, debate and agree on the role of all energy sources.
In a recent synthesis of its work, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that the world is likely to cross the key global warming limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius in about a decade. These UN experts have called for dramatic reductions in global warming emissions, with a particularly rapid transformation needed in the energy sector.
“Transparency.”
The president of the COP28 has urged developed countries to release annually the 100 billion dollars promised to developing countries to cope with global warming. A promise that dates back to 2009 and was originally intended to be fulfilled by 2020. “This is delaying progress. As part of my advocacy, I am asking donor countries to provide an assessment of the fulfillment of this commitment before COP28,” said al-Jaber.
The head of German diplomacy, Annalena Baerbock, said she was optimistic: “We are on the verge of reaching this sum of 100 billion dollars this year”, the green minister assured the conference. But, Baerbock warned, “public funds alone will not be able to cover these needs” and address “the greatest security challenge of our century.”
Mr. Ahmed al-Jaber has called for a reform of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which is supposed to allow “the release of much more financing”, especially private financing. France has asked, through the Minister of Energy Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher, that “there be the greatest possible transparency on the goal of 100 billion” and “a transparency on who brings how much to these funds. Germany and France each pay about 6 billion euros per year.
