5 December 2023, Dubai UAE - The Republic of Marshall Islands (RMI) has urged leaders and members of the international community at COP28 in Dubai, UAE, to address the root cause of the climate crisis and stop burning fossil fuels.
While the Pacific nation welcomes international efforts and commitments to scale up renewable and alternative sources of energy, RMI laments the slow progress on the other half of the equation, which is the need to reduce fossil fuels and reduce production.
RMI’s Climate Change Envoy, Ms Tina Stege, made the point during a press conference on the margins of COP28 as parties consider phase-out of fossil fuels as part of the conference final deal, according to a draft negotiating text published on the UNFCCC website.
The draft text includes three options, which delegates from nearly 200 countries will now consider.
The first option in the draft is listed as "an orderly and just phase-out of fossil fuels". In U.N. parlance, the word "just" suggests wealthy nations with a long history of fossil fuel burning would phase out faster than poorer countries that are developing their resources now. The second option calls for "accelerating efforts towards phasing out unabated fossil fuels". A third option would be to avoid mentioning a fossil fuel phase-out.
Some delegates at COP28 say the issue of whether countries will agree to eventually phase out fossil fuels could be a defining moment in oil-rich Dubai. For the Republic of Marshall Islands, Ms Stege said fossil fuel phase out is a big issue for them because “this is the heart of what we’re going to have to address at this COP.”
“We need to address the root cause of the problem, which is the burning of fossil fuel,” she said. “Unless we do so, we will blow past 1.5C, we will be in a world in which those on the frontline of this will not be able to adapt. All our future will hold is loss and damage if we go past 1.5c.”
Ms Stege comes from an atoll nation of roughly 60,000 people spread mostly among coral atolls facing an imminent existential threat from climate change. Sea-level rise has already led to increased flooding and the degradation of water used for drinking and cooking. Ongoing coral bleaching affects local fish stocks, which Marshallese rely upon for food. She remembers the hard work Pacific countries, through groups such as the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) and Pacific Small Islands Developing States (PSIDS), have put in over the years to progress action and ambition needed to address the climate crisis.
“I want to go back to something Michai Robertson said that the ‘protection and prosperity of SIDS is the protection and prosperity for the world’ and I want to recall how 1.5 came about. If we go back to pre-2015, who was championing what was then seen as unrealistic, unachievable, and not backed up at that point by the science?” Ms Stege said.
“It was this group that said 1.5 was necessary to keep all of us alive. If anything, what we have now, this many years later with all the reports from the IPCC, with the science that has definitely backed up by the IEA, across the board, and understanding that below doesn’t cut it, 1.5 is in fact what all of us need to stay alive.
“If that is our north star, then that is why we continue to come to COP, to fight and absolutely never give up on 1.5.”
And at COP28, what does it mean and what does Ms. Stege want to see as the outcomes.
“We have an opportunity this year, with this Global Stocktake (GST) to course correct. This group is taking that opportunity by the horns and saying these are the things that need to happen and that includes addressing need for fossil fuel phase out,” she said.
“We have heard from IEA net zero emissions scenario that we cannot have any new fossil fuel developments if we are to stay within the 1.5 degree celcius and yet we know there is expansion happening now.
“UNEP has found that governments plan to produce around 110 percent more fossil fuels in 2030 than would be consistent with 1.5. We cannot afford not to address the root cause of this problem and we also cannot afford to pretend that there are other pathways to achieving 1.5 when there are so many lives at stake.”
The Marshal Islands welcomes the commitment to scale up renewable energy sources.
“It’s exciting to see that that acceleration has started but you can’t have an acceleration and scale up of renewables without addressing the other half of the equation which is the need to reduce fossil fuels and reduce production,” continued Ms. Stege. “You need more on one side and less on the other side, that’s the only way it will work for the world.”
RMI formed the High Ambition Coalition (HAC) in run-up negotiations at the UNFCCC to the Paris Agreement in 2015. The HAC helped to secure key elements of the deal, including the 1.5C temperature goal, the net zero global emissions pathway by the second half of the century, and a five-year cycle for updating mitigation contributions.
The science has only become clearer since Paris—keeping global temperature increase below 1.5C is imperative to avert the most severe impacts of climate change.
“RMI as the chair of the High Ambition Coalition joined with 26 other heads of states call for a GST that does in fact course correct, and includes a global phase out of fossil fuels.
“We’ve rallying partners to stand together at this COP for what the science requires and we will be calling on them to continue to stand with us. We have a chance this year to protect the integrity of the Paris Agreement, it requires an honest reckoning of this process, it requires a commitment to maintain the credibility of the process, and it requires an understanding that the only way forward will include a plan to end this era of fossil fuel.”
The 28th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP28) in Dubai, UAE is taking place from Thursday 30 November 2023 – Tuesday 12 December 2023.
It is being attended by Pacific leaders and their delegations, who are advocating for the survival of Pacific communities who continue to be at the forefront of climate change impacts.
A key part of amplifying the One Pacific Voice at COP28 is the Moana Blue Pacific Pavilion, which is a Pacific partnership with Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia. Another key part of the Pacific’s work at COP28 is the Pacific Delegation Office, which is Pacific partnership with Aotearoa New Zealand. Both the Moana Pacific Pavilion and the Pacific Delegation Office are managed by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP).