Energy This Week: Cop28's historic deal
'Historic' global stocktake approved in Dubai
The global stocktake was unanimously approved by 198 nations at the Cop28 climate conference in Dubai on Wednesday, marking a historic moment in the fight against climate change.
"Many said this could not be done," Cop President Dr Sultan Al Jaber told delegates at Expo City Dubai.
"But when I spoke to you at the very start of this Cop, I promised a different sort of Cop. A Cop that brought everyone together, private and public sectors, civil society, NGOs and faith leaders and indigenous peoples."
The stocktake includes a commitment to transitioning away from fossil fuels to achieve net zero by 2050, while tripling global renewable energy capacity by the end of the decade.
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Gas needs to re-establish its climate credentials
Gas needs to reclaim its credentials as a much cleaner energy source than coal. Despite concurrence at previous climate summits on reducing coal use, consumption of the carbon-intensive fuel reached another record last year and is set to drop only moderately by 2030. Francesco La Camera, director general of the Abu Dhabi-based International Renewable Energy Agency, says the world needs to stop the consumption of fossil fuels instead of “pointing fingers ” at oil and gas producers.
Despite the Israel-Gaza war, Energean, one of the main gas producers in Israel, wants to expand in the region. The London-listed company has just acquired offshore gas assets in Morocco.
Oil prices continued their bad run with a seventh consecutive weekly decline , despite the previous week’s announcement of deeper Opec cuts. Brent settled at $75.84 a barrel, having closed at $74.30 on Thursday, about a five-month low . Concerns about weak Chinese demand and strong US output continue to weigh down the market. Saudi Aramco is to buy 40 per cent of Gas & Oil Pakistan, entering the South Asian country’s fuel retail market.
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Protests and pleas for nature protection as warming approaches 1.5°C
Inger Andersen, the executive director of the UN Environment Programme, says “without nature we cannot make it ”, in addition to praising the UAE’s efforts in establishing the loss and damage fund early during Cop28.
Laurent Fabius, former French foreign minister, who as chairman of Cop21 helped to craft the Paris Agreement, said the world is still “off track ” and set for 2.8°C to 3°C of warming. Indeed, forecasts suggest the world will exceed warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels next year, going above the Paris target.
Cop1 had 3,969 delegates in attendance in Berlin in 1995. This has now risen to more than 80,000 in Dubai. Egypt says that country platforms, such as its nexus of food, water and energy, are a practical way to push forward national action.
Climate activist Licypriya Kangujam, 12, from Manipur in north-east India, was removed from the event by UN guards after holding up a poster asking to save the planet. Protesters railed against the alleged presence of 2,456 “fossil fuel lobbyists”, while oil and gas leaders discussed ways their industry can do a better environmental job.
African delegates fear the loss of their national environment, with Gabon, one of the world’s most forested nations, seeking extra funding to extend elephant-proof fences to save the animals from conflicts with farmers. Pacific nations are already threatened by rising sea levels, diminishing coral reefs and stronger cyclones.
The Gulf’s problem is usually too little water rather than too much, and water audits could help residents save the precious liquid, and reduce the emissions and marine pollution from desalination. The Gulf region has significant resources to cope with climate change for now but could lose 8 per cent of annual gross domestic product by 2050 to extreme heat and water stress, albeit in an unlikely high-emissions scenario, according to S&P Global Ratings. Researchers at the Mubadala Arabian Centre for Climate and Environmental Sciences have secured $1 million to help corals survive in hotter waters.
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Bullet train, ship and bike on the way to Cop28
Simon Stiell, the UN’s top climate official, said last week that “we need Cop to deliver a bullet train to speed up climate action. We currently have an old caboose train chugging over rickety tracks”.
Elderly Emirati sailors, at Cop as cultural ambassadors, recalled a much tougher era on the seas. One Cop28 delegate, Australian mining billionaire Andrew Forrest, made his way to the summit in a partial version of an ammonia-powered ship . Decarbonising the crucial shipping industry – with ammonia, hydrogen, batteries or some other fuels – is a big challenge, and the International Maritime Organisation is looking at a levy on ships’ greenhouse gas emissions.
Mr Forrest, with a fortune of $26.3 billion made from iron, called for a phase-out of fossil fuels in favour of renewable energy and green hydrogen, for which he has been a strong advocate.
A lower-tech but also lower-carbon way to get to Cop was achieved by Michael Evertz, 64, a German cyclist, who said he “felt climate change in my body ” while passing through Greece and Turkey this summer during his 8,862km, 222-day journey. Delegates were transported around the event itself in electric and hybrid cars and buses.
Aviation is an even tougher sector than shipping to decarbonise. Activists say airlines should pay for pollution . Air chiefs say they have made improvements and asked for more support to expand the use of sustainable aviation fuels. The first day of Cop28 registered a record 2,848 aircraft movements in the UAE as delegates arrived.
Military use is another big contributor to emissions, 5.5 per cent of the global total, with the US Department of Defence estimated to be the world’s biggest institutional oil consumer. Currently, militarisation worldwide is accelerating rather than diminishing.
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Cop advances hydrogen
More than 30 countries signed a declaration of intent last Tuesday to accelerate hydrogen projects and demand and endorse a global certification system.
Adnoc and Masdar concluded several hydrogen-related deals on Friday. Adnoc will work on hydrogen supply chains with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries while Masdar agreed to explore decarbonising oil refineries with Austrian oil group OMV. Adnoc earlier agreed with Azerbaijan to explore blue hydrogen, carbon management and geothermal energy. Adio, the Abu Dhabi Department of Energy and clean energy company Masdar signed an agreement to collaborate on low-carbon hydrogen, and Enoc opened its first green hydrogen fuelling station at Expo City Dubai.
Sharjah National Oil Company, which has a 2032 net-zero target , is developing the emirate’s largest solar plant and is researching potential green hydrogen projects. And at least 60 countries at Cop signed a pledge to cut emissions from cooling , which could drop 96 per cent by 2050 if new technology and sustainable design are introduced.
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Climate finance tackles ‘sustaina-babble’
Finance has been a major theme throughout this Cop. Bankers discussed the good fit of Islamic finance for sustainable investing, but one criticised “sustaina-babble” in company reports for not focusing on the issue. Banks are examining their “Scope 3” or financed emissions. Carbon trading is a critical issue, and regulators and industry bodies are working on a framework after voluntary offsets have come under heavy criticism over a lack of results and a failure of money to reach communities.
The event has mobilised technology, with Bill Gates and the president of Jeff Bezos’s Earth Fund prominent.
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Cop spurs UAE to advance sustainability at home and abroad
The climate summit continued to bring clean energy deals. Amea Power, a Dubai-based renewable developer, will build a 300-megawatt wind farm in Ethiopia and a 30MW solar farm in Zimbabwe. Emirati professor Saeed Alhassan is promoting a floating farm that generates fresh water from the sea without using electricity.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, has laid out an expanded UAE sustainability plan, which includes preserving ecosystems, signing up to a pledge on global sustainable cooling, removing carbon from waste, setting up a national registry of carbon credits, creating a company for electrical vehicle charging, and launching policies on sustainable aviation fuels and smart construction. Sheikh Mohammed inaugurated the world’s biggest concentrated solar power plant, part of the $4.3 billion, 950MW fourth phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Solar Park.
The Abu Dhabi Investment Office will work with Britain’s Gridserve to boost the UAE’s electric and smart vehicle industry, and modernised emissions standards for light vehicles could cut 90 per cent of pollution in Abu Dhabi. Careem is introducing electric delivery bikes with a goal of 1,000 on the road by the end of next year. Abdulla Al Rumeithi from Environment Agency Abu Dhabi has launched an app that will calculate the personal carbon footprint of every person, and offer incentives for reductions.
Tokyo’s governor Yuriko Koike wants to work with UAE start-ups to create solutions such as bendable solar panels that could be spray-painted on buildings, and methods to cut air pollution. Masdar City wants to stay at the zero-carbon forefront . Interest in sustainable building in the region has risen but there is still a need for more knowledge and policies to reduce emissions.
A low-carbon lifestyle can bring a longer, happier life . Research has identified five “Blue Zones” – not to be confused with Cop28’s delegate area – from Okinawa in Japan to Icaria in Greece, that combine these principles. The world’s “scariest bouquet ” is going around the Cop28 summit – made of Antarctic pearlwort and hair-grass, a reminder of how the world’s coldest continent is heating up.