Denmark calls new UN COP28 climate draft 'historic progress'
Denmark on Wednesday hailed a new draft deal at UN climate talks as historic on tackling fossil fuels, in one of the first reactions from a European nation.
"If this is adopted, it will be historic progress," Danish Minister of Development Cooperation and Global Climate Policy Dan Jørgensen, part of a group tasked with making headway at the Dubai COP28 summit, told reporters.
“We have a text that says we should move away from fossil fuels,” he also said according to Danish news wire Ritzau.
“It’s actually quite fantastic when you think that we are standing here in an oil state, surrounded by oil states. These are countries that live almost exclusively on the sale of oil and gas, and they’ve now agreed to write, black on white, that they will move away from that,” he said.
The draft version of the text has received criticism for not including the words “phase out”, but rather “transition away”, in reference to fossil fuels.
Denmark and the EU had prior to the summit targeted a joint statement of the intention to phase out fossil fuels.
Instead, the wording of the statement is weighted towards “transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems” to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, media at the summit report.
A final version of the statement must be approved by all signatories after delegates attend a plenary hearing, Ritzau reports.
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"If this is adopted, it will be historic progress," Danish Minister of Development Cooperation and Global Climate Policy Dan Jørgensen, part of a group tasked with making headway at the Dubai COP28 summit, told reporters.
“We have a text that says we should move away from fossil fuels,” he also said according to Danish news wire Ritzau.
“It’s actually quite fantastic when you think that we are standing here in an oil state, surrounded by oil states. These are countries that live almost exclusively on the sale of oil and gas, and they’ve now agreed to write, black on white, that they will move away from that,” he said.
The draft version of the text has received criticism for not including the words “phase out”, but rather “transition away”, in reference to fossil fuels.
Denmark and the EU had prior to the summit targeted a joint statement of the intention to phase out fossil fuels.
Instead, the wording of the statement is weighted towards “transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems” to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, media at the summit report.
A final version of the statement must be approved by all signatories after delegates attend a plenary hearing, Ritzau reports.
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