Israel’s assault on Gaza resumes the day after the summit reaches an settlement over a long-sought rehabilitation fund.
UN Secretary-Basic Antonio Guterres has urged world leaders on the COP28 local weather summit to plan for a future with out fossil fuels, saying there was no different solution to curb world warming.
Talking a day after COP28 President Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber proposed embracing the continued use of fossil fuels, Guterres mentioned: “We cannot save a burning planet with a fire hose of fossil fuels.”
“The 1.5-degree limit is only possible if we ultimately stop burning all fossil fuels. Not reduce. Not abate,” he mentioned on Friday, referring to nascent applied sciences to seize and retailer carbon emissions.
The competing visions summed up the problem of the UN local weather talks within the oil-producing United Arab Emirates, the place divisions over fossil fuels and acrimony over lagging financing and geopolitical tensions across the struggle in Gaza threatened to distract delegates from making progress.
Local weather catastrophe fund
An settlement was reached on Thursday for the creation of a “loss and damage fund” to assist poor international locations climate the impacts of local weather change, which is essentially the results of fossil gas use by wealthy international locations, which have produced a big share of cumulative emissions.
Whereas such a fund has lengthy been sought by growing nations, which stand to lose essentially the most from local weather change and have urged richer international locations to offer help, solely $700m was devoted to the fund. Poor international locations had mentioned $100bn is required.
A member from a growing nation on the summit’s foremost advisory board additionally resigned on Friday after reviews that the host, the United Arab Emirates, would use the occasion to attempt to safe industrial offers on additional oil and fuel manufacturing.
“These actions undermine the integrity of the COP presidency and the process as a whole,” Hilda Heine, former president of the low-lying, climate-vulnerable Marshall Islands, mentioned in a resignation letter.
A spokesperson for al-Jaber, who can also be the pinnacle of the Abu Dhabi Nationwide Oil Firm, has denied the reviews and mentioned he’s “extremely disappointed” by the resignation.
Anger over Gaza struggle
Some world leaders took their flip on the podium on Friday to criticise Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, breaking an unstated settlement to keep away from politics at UN local weather summits.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erodgan and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa accused Israel of committing struggle crimes in Gaza throughout their speeches whereas an Israeli official mentioned the navy was abiding by worldwide legislation and was intent on destroying Hamas.
“South Africa is appalled by the cruel tragedy that is under way in Gaza. The war against the innocent people of Palestine is a war crime that must be ended now,” Ramaphosa mentioned.
“As we see in this region, conflicts are causing immense suffering and intense emotion,” Guterres mentioned in remarks on Friday. “We just had the news that the bombs are sounding again in Gaza.”
“We are here all together, all the world together, to combat climate change and, really, we’re negotiating for what?” requested Hadeel Ikhmais, a local weather change knowledgeable with the Palestinian Authority. “We’re negotiating for what in the middle of a genocide?”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog had been scheduled to offer a speech on Friday however didn’t achieve this after different leaders criticised Israel’s heavy bombardment of Gaza, which Colombian President Gustavo Petro known as “genocide and barbarism unleashed on the Palestinian people”.
