The new COP26 draft contains an unprecedented reference to fossil fuels

(CNN) – A new version of the draft COP26 agreement was released early Friday and maintains a note on fossil fuels, despite intense campaigning by major coal, oil and gas producers to remove it.

But the content of this draft is weaker than before, uses dilute language, and some words are open to interpretation.

The draft will come on the last day of the nearly two-week climate conference, but it is not final; You still have 197 parties to agree to it, and it is entirely possible to dilute it.

However, if anything is mentioned about fossil fuels, it increases the pressure on major coal, oil and gas producers such as Saudi Arabia, China, Russia and Australia. Familiar sources of speech. Officials in four countries did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

Now there is increasing pressure on fossil fuel manufacturers to retain the language.

The new text should expedite “gradual discharge of coal energy and inefficient subsidies for fossil fuels”.

The aggregate term “non-reduced” means that if those countries emit large amounts of carbon dioxide, they may continue to use coal. This concept is controversial because the technology to fully capture greenhouse gases is still in development. Also added was “incompetent”, which made that part of the contract too open to interpretation.

However, if any lines are maintained on the fossil fuels, the first climate agreement of the parties’ conference will indicate the role of coal, oil and gas as key contributors to the man-made climate crisis.

“It’s always a small business. We’m gradually eliminating fossil fuel subsidies and emitting carbon in the text is really new and important,” said Helen Mountford, vice president for climate and economics at World Resources. Company, at a conference.

“Compared to the speech two days ago, the addition of‘ underestimated ’and‘ inefficient ’and fossil fuel subsidies against coal, of course, returns to the most convenient negotiating language among others, so I hope some countries would like Saudi Arabia to have put pressure to add inefficiency in fossil fuel subsidies.

While this is an improvement on the political level, the deal is far weaker than scientists claim that the world needs to control global warming by more than 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. The most recent UN climate science report showed that in order to reach that limit, the world needs to halve its emissions by almost half this decade.

Diluting the language

The language of the new draft of the agreement is soft in many respects compared to the first iteration. Usually it is expected in climate negotiations, and the final deal may be even weaker.

The first draft of the agreement “insisted” that the country return with drastic emissions reduction targets by the end of next year, and the new “asks” it to do so.

While the first draft “noted with serious concern” that the money provided to developing countries to deal with the climate crisis was not enough, the latest draft avoids the word “serious”. The question of who should pay for the effects of the crisis has become a major stumbling block in the negotiations.

Calls for more money to the world’s richest countries have been somewhat strengthened by the second draft, however, which still urges developed countries to set a more specific deadline and at least double the amount of money transferred to the world in response to the crisis. By 2025

Money for adaptation became a major stumbling block to the talks.

The draft agreement, released on Friday by the COP26 Presidency, states that the world should aim to control global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

The document “recognizes that the effects of climate change are minimal with a 1.5 ° C increase in temperature compared to 2 ° C and decides to continue efforts to control the rise in temperature to 1.5 ° C”.

To do so, the document states, “a rapid, deep and sustainable reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions is needed.” The language is consistent with the latest science, which shows that the world needs to control global warming by 1.5 degrees Celsius more than pre-industrial levels to prevent the climate crisis from getting worse and approaching a catastrophic situation.

A key analysis released on Tuesday said The world is heading towards 2.4 degrees warming. That means the risks of severe drought, wildfires, floods, catastrophic sea level rise and food shortages will increase dramatically, scientists say.