by After 10 days of climate negotiations at Cop28 in Dubai, delegates now have just 48 hours to reach a meaningful agreement on phasing out the use of fossil fuels worldwide.
But while experts say that will do little in the way of tackling the climate crisis, the summit has devoted much space to promoting so-called “technical solutions” to global warming – the think there might be new discoveries. allow us to keep emissions under control and continue to exploit oil and gas for power.
Proposals for such solutions include building a giant shield that could reflect some of the sunlight back from Earth, or a technology called carbon capture and storage (CCS) that attempts to capture and limit emissions by the point where the fossil fuels are burned. .
Experts here in Dubai are alarmed by the number of booths dedicated to unscientific geoengineering solutions like the solar giant, saying that testing these ideas is wreaking havoc on already fragile countries.
And despite the fact that there is still no evidence that CCS technology can work on a large scale, negotiators from oil-producing countries are already talking about using it to “reduce” or reduce the impact of fossil fuel burning, by suggested that only the last measure Cop28 should be focused on. “non-depleting” fossil fuels.
“I think Cop is becoming more of a space where a lot of people come and want to promote technological solutions to the crisis,” says Sara Shaw, climate justice and energy program coordinator at Friends of the Earth International . The Independent. “And there are real challenges with that.
“What we are hearing from people on the ground is the threat [related to geoengineering experiments] in some cases as serious as the threat from the impact of fossil fuel extraction [itself],” she says.
Mr Shaw says geoengineering projects are testing Native lands in Alaska with proposals to dump huge quantities of silica glass microbeads on Arctic ice without consent or consultation. “These ‘solutions’ are not solutions at all, if they lead to land capture or poisoning,” she says.
“Not only that, [promoting technical solutions] it allows fossil fuel extraction operations to continue, it’s a bit of a get-out-of-jail-free card for fossil fuel companies.”
Climate activists staged a protest against these technical proposals on Friday morning demanding a focus on “real solutions” instead, with chants of “our planet is not for sale” echoing in front of the flag-draped boulevard world leaders walked on it. the first day of the summit.
“No more carbon markets, no geo-engineering, no more offsets,” it demanded.
CCS technology has received a lot of promotion in Dubai, especially from fossil fuel industries, despite the fact that it is still unproven and very expensive.
In a recent report, scientists from the University of Oxford said that the idea that all future carbon dioxide emission problems can be safely and permanently put in the ground with CCS technologies is a big mistake.
Experts say that these technologies, which are often shown to be ready for implementation, are far from being deployable at the necessary scale, and involve risks and uncertainties.
Lisa Fischer, head of the program at the climate and energy advocacy group E3G, says there are 475 direct lobbyists for CCS at the Dubai summit. “[It] it shows that the fossil fuel industry knows that there is a high probability that the world will move towards a market for global fossil fuel phasing out,” she says.
“The truth is, it’s expensive to capture emissions and bury them rather than avoid them.
“Most countries know this – which is why many people are now trying to keep the word “reduction” out of the text and referring to the limited role of carbon capture technologies to go combat climate change, especially this decade.
Another solution being pushed at the summit is to use hydrogen as a power source. But Shaw says the “majority of hydrogen” produced worldwide is “fossil hydrogen” – where the power to create hydrogen from water comes from burning fossil fuels.
“On the surface, something like hydrogen looks and sounds very attractive. But when you look at what’s actually needed, almost all of it, almost all of it, is fossil hydrogen.
“We try to use all these dangerous technologies. but I think the cost is very high, and we know what the answers are,” she says.
At the start of the summit, UN chief Antonio Guterres urged countries to agree to phase out fossil fuels. “Don’t shrink, don’t shrink. Gradually, with a clear time frame,” he told world leaders.
That is the only way to tackle the climate crisis, say experts.
“I think with fossil fuel phasing out, what we’re looking for is language that doesn’t diminish this term,” says Shaw. “There is no time left to mess up. Time is running out.”
