Green Party leader Eamon Ryan has said that unless the draft text deal put forward by the COP28 Presidency this afternoon in Dubai is modified, the EU will “walk away” from the agreement altogether – something which he said would be a very negative outcome.
Ryan – who is Ireland’s Minister for the Environment, Climate, Communications and Transport – was appointed as one of the lead EU negotiators on climate finance on behalf of the 27-nation bloc, along with a French Minister.
At 5:00 p.m. today the draft COP28 agreement was presented to those in attendance, but Ryan and others took grave exception to elements of the draft text, such as paragraph 39, which says that when reducing greenhouse gases, parties “could” include take measures such as “phasing down unabated coal” and “accelerating technologies” like carbon capture technology.
“If we start with paragraph 39, which goes to the heart of whether we phase out fossil fuel, that one word ‘could’ just kills everything,” said Ryan.
“We can’t have a get out of jail card for the fossil fuel industry, and the current text would give them that.”
He said “We can’t accept this text,” adding: “It’s not anywhere near ambitious enough. It’s not broad enough. It’s not what parties have been calling for.”
Ryan also criticised the language in relation to climate finance, saying it was not strong or specific in how it addressed financial markets and investors.
“We have to hugely strengthen the finance sections,” he said.
“We need to phase up the opportunities to invest in renewables, particularly in the developing world. However, above all, we need clear mechanisms for implementation so that we can begin to work on changing the global financial systems to incentivise investment in renewable energy systems and in adaptation (like water supplies and climate smart agriculture). These are critical for developing countries. We have to stitch climate justice into every part of this text and we are not anywhere near that yet.”
He added: “If this doesn’t change, yes, we will walk away. This is not acceptable.”
The comments come just a week Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that Ireland will honour its commitment of €225 million per year in taxpayer money to “help other countries invest in climate action.”
“We need to put our money where our mouth is and help poorer countries to reduce emissions,” he said, adding: “By doing so we will help ourselves.”
Ireland to give €225m annually to help other countries fight climate change