Saudis Resist Restating Fossil Fuel Transition Pledge at COP29

(Bloomberg) -- A fight is building at the United Nations climate talks over whether countries should recommit to last year’s historic pledge to transition away from fossil fuels.

European and US negotiators see restating commitments agreed last year, including a boost in efficiency and renewable energy deployment, as essential to prevent backtracking on the global climate fight, people familiar with the matter said. Saudi Arabia is leading a push back with a mix of delaying tactics and outright blocking maneuvers, they said, asking not to be named because the negotiations aren’t public.

The disagreement comes at a delicate juncture at COP29 in Azerbaijan. A deal on fossil fuels made it to a final COP agreement for the first time ever last year, with COP28 host United Arab Emirates successfully getting Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing nations on board with a message to “transition away” from fossil fuels in Dubai. A failure to double down on the language agreed in last year’s deal is seen by developed and climate-vulnerable countries as a climbdown.

A representative for Saudi Arabia declined to immediately comment.

A tussle over the agenda at the beginning of this year’s COP stemmed from disagreements over whether — and in what forum — the commitments to slash emissions made last year should be discussed. Last year, the Saudis initially pushed back on any language on fossil fuels before the UAE was able to get a deal over the line with their tacit backing. 

The main goal of this year’s negotiations is to replace an existing annual $100 billion climate finance pledge with one delivering far more to help poorer nations build green economies and resilience to global warming. The required amount has been estimated to be more than $1 trillion a year. The US and Europe want more countries to contribute funding, putting pressure on Saudi Arabia and other rich Gulf petrostates that are responsible for a large proportion of emissions.

Separately, countries are on the hook to submit new ambitious national climate strategies by next February to ensure they are on a path set out by the Paris Agreement. The landmark deal in 2015 states that countries will aim to keep global warming to 2C, and ideally 1.5C, before the end of the century.

Saudi Arabia has described last year’s agreement to transition away from fossil fuels — the first reference to the main cause of climate change in three decades of UN talks — as presenting a menu of options for tackling rising greenhouse gas emissions. Under that view, countries can pick —  à la carte style — from the pact’s commitments, including to triple renewable energy capacity globally, double the annual rate of energy efficiency improvements and accelerate efforts toward the phase-down of unabated coal power. 

That approach differs from the view of the US, the EU and others who argue countries committed to pursue all of the actions — not select from among them.

The kingdom is the world’s biggest crude oil exporter, and is also building green projects while pursuing a multitrillion-dollar plan to reduce the economy’s dependence on oil.

Including the fossil fuel language in a COP deal took 28 years and “we must ensure this commitment is not lost in translation and is reinforced in all future decisions,” Fiji’s Deputy Prime Minister Biman Prasad said. 

COP29 talks are about to enter their second week, a period where climate ministers provide the political impetus to settle the main issues that cannot be solved at a more technical level. Pages of negotiating text need to be reduced, brackets need to be replaced and trade-offs will be bartered in closed-door meetings. 

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COP29’s Azerbaijan presidency will have to act as a neutral broker despite fossil fuels making up 90% of the country’s exports and its leader Ilham Aliyev calling them a “gift of God.”

Donald Trump’s return as US president and his commitment to boost the country’s energy production also hangs over any fresh commitments to move away from oil, gas and coal. 

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