The Guardian: Rich countries failing to show leadership to break Cop28 impasse, activists say

[OKIsItJustMe]

Rich countries failing to show leadership to break Cop28 impasse, activists say

Many accused of being too mired in fossil fuel hypocrisy, as wrangling over possible deal continues

Cop28 live – latest updates
Fiona Harvey and Nina Lakhani in Dubai
Tue 12 Dec 2023 10.14 EST

Rich countries have failed to show the leadership necessary to solve the climate crisis, and many are too mired in their own hypocrisy over fossil fuels to break the impasse at Cop28, climate justice advocates have told the Guardian.

Talks at the UN climate summit were deadlocked on Tuesday night, as countries fought over the wording of a potential deal on the future of fossil fuels.

Saudi Arabia and a few allied countries are in a small minority that have publicly raised strong objections to the inclusion of any reference to reducing the production and consumption of fossil fuels in the text of a potential deal.

Many developed countries are publicly pushing hard for a phase-out of coal, oil and gas – but with caveats such as “unabated” or just coal, in the case of the US. They rejected the first draft of the text, produced on Monday evening, because it included “reduction of the production and consumption of fossil fuels” only as one of a list of options that countries “could” act on.

…