Source: U.N. climate chief calls for end to fossil fuels as talks head to Dubai

Mongabay Series: Covering Climate Now

U.N. climate chief calls for end to fossil fuels as talks head to Dubai

by John Cannon on 8 June 2023

• International climate talks began in Bonn, Germany, on June 5.
• A key part of the discussion will be the global stocktake, assessing progress toward the emissions cuts pledged by nations as part of the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
• Discussions will work to provide the technical details of the stocktake, but the consensus is that the world is not on track to cut emissions by 50% by 2030, which scientists say is key to keeping the global temperature rise below 1.5°C (2.7°F) over pre-industrial levels.
• The talks are a precursor to COP28, the annual U.N. climate conference, scheduled to begin Nov. 30 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which is a major oil- and gas-producing nation.

The world won’t be able to limit global temperature rise as called for in the 2015 Paris Agreement without eventually eliminating the use of fossil fuels, according to Simon Stiell, the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

“The position of the [UNFCCC] secretariat is following the science, and the science is clear,” Stiell said at a June 5 press conference for the climate talks underway in Bonn, Germany. Halving emissions by 2030, as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says is necessary to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, and getting to net-zero emissions by 2050 “requires a deep cut and reduction, the phasing out, phasing down of all fossil fuels,” he said.