BERLIN (AP) – Leaders of this year’s U.N. climate talks called on governments and businesses Thursday to curb global warming by cutting greenhouse gas emissions in all regions and sectors if they want to stop the planet from crossing key agreed-upon temperature limits. Seven years ago.
The UAE’s Sultan Al-Jaber, head of one of the country’s leading oil companies, told a gathering of senior officials from Europe, Canada and China in Brussels that recent warming in some parts of the world shows an urgent need. Action to curb emissions.
As he laid out his strategy for this fall’s COP28 global climate talks in Dubai, al-Jaber said leaders must be “brutally honest” about the worst warming since pre-industrial times and how to stop further increases.
While many fossil fuel companies have pledged to reduce direct and indirect emissions from their operations – known as scope 1 and 2 – many have refused to take responsibility for scope 3 emissions from sources they own or control. Their gas. The latter account for most emissions, and effectively cutting those means reducing the need for fossil fuels.
“We need to attack all emissions everywhere, one, two and three,” said Al-Jaber, who plans to bring together governments, major energy producers and heavy-emitting industries to come up with a practical plan to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) is in line with the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.
Scientists say meeting this goal will require cutting global emissions in half by 2030, and current efforts are far from the right track. Many have expressed doubts that the technological solutions proposed by the fossil fuel industry and some governments will provide the reductions necessary to achieve the goal in the near term.
Still, Al-Jaber said, the world “must use every available emission control tool, including nuclear, battery storage and carbon capture and removal technologies, to reduce emissions, especially in the most difficult sectors.”
They called for a significant increase in renewable energy production and funding to help developing countries transition away from polluting fuels and help them cope with the effects of climate change.