{"id":49646,"date":"2023-12-04T04:00:07","date_gmt":"2023-12-04T04:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/?p=49646"},"modified":"2023-12-03T16:54:23","modified_gmt":"2023-12-03T16:54:23","slug":"cop28-bulletin-al-jaber-goes-off-script-denies-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/2023\/12\/04\/cop28-bulletin-al-jaber-goes-off-script-denies-science\/","title":{"rendered":"Cop28 bulletin: Al Jaber goes off script, denies science"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do you find it hard to reconcile the Sultan Al Jaber the climate champion with Sultan Al Jaber the oil chief? So does he, if an unscripted moment reported by the Guardian<\/a> is anything to go on.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a live event with former UN special envoy Mary Robinson in November, Al Jaber momentarily forgot his PR-approved lines and reverted to industry talking points.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says that the phase-out of fossil fuel is what\u2019s going to achieve 1.5C,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He dismissed Robinson\u2019s call for a phase-out as \u201calarmist\u201d and said it would \u201ctake the world back into caves\u201d.<\/p>\n

Leading scientists Jean-Pascal van Ypersele and Michael Mann wrote Al Jaber an open letter<\/a> in response.<\/p>\n

Speaking for the climate system, \u201cthe most difficult party… which has only red lines and no flexibility,\u201d they said, \u201chumanity needs to phase out fossil fuels by 2050\u201d.<\/p>\n

Carbon capture and storage can only mitigate \u201ca very small fraction\u201d of fossil fuel emissions, the letter said.<\/p>\n

That last point is critical, as the oil and gas sector cites scenarios that show some<\/em> residual fossil fuel use with CCS to justify production on a much larger scale.<\/p>\n

Laurence Tubiana, one of the architects of the Paris Agreement, unpacks the CCS myth together with Emmanuel Guerin in an article for Climate Home News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople in the oil and gas industry know there is zero probability of [a] high-CCS scenario coming true,” they write. \u201cThe reality is they are just fooling us one more time, to buy time we can\u2019t afford to waste in dealing with the climate crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Al Jaber\u2019s slip of the tongue shows why precision matters in negotiations. Phase down can mean something very different to phase out, and \u201cunabated<\/a>\u201d fossil fuels need further defining.<\/p>\n

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