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Call for fossil fuel phase-out on global stocktake agenda: UN report
According to the UNFCCC report, possible elements of the global stocktake outcome could include a call to parties on phase-out of fossil fuels, support global commitment to accelerate the phase-out of unabated fossil fuels, and efforts to phase out inefficient fuel subsidies by 2025, supported by enabling environments and upscaling investments in renewable energy. The International Energy Agency IEA said in September that global demand for oil, natural gas and coal is likely to peak by 2030.
Calls to phase out unabated fossil fuels, reform subsidies on it and triple global renewable energy capacity may find their way into the outcome of the first-ever global stocktake, a periodic assessment of collective efforts to achieve the Paris Agreement goals.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) recently released a report summarising submissions made by countries and non-party stakeholders regarding the political response to the global stocktake. ”They will inform negotiations but there’s no guarantee any particular element will make it into the final text. With that said, fossil fuel phase-out is prominently featured in this long list of possible decision elements,” Natalie Jones, a policy advisor at climate policy think tank International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), said. According to the UNFCCC report, possible elements of the global stocktake outcome could include a call to parties on ”phase-out of fossil fuels, support global commitment to accelerate the phase-out of unabated fossil fuels, and efforts to phase out inefficient fuel subsidies by 2025, supported by enabling environments and upscaling investments in renewable energy”.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) said in September that global demand for oil, natural gas and coal is likely to peak by 2030. The IEA termed it an encouraging development but ”not nearly enough” to limit the rise in global average temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Countries promised to phase out ”inefficient” fossil fuel subsidies at COP26 in Glasgow in 2021 and COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh in 2022, but they hit record highs in 2022. A report that came ahead of the G20 Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi in September said countries in the bloc allocated a staggering USD 1.4 trillion of public funds to support fossil fuels in 2022, aiming to counter the impact of their soaring prices due to the Ukraine war and strengthen energy reserves.
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