11 December 2023
Reacting to the draft text issued at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai today, Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer said:
“We urged COP28 to achieve three vital things – the changes needed now to keep 1.5 alive; the phasing out of fossil fuels; and tackling climate inequality by making the polluter pay and ensuring generous contributions to the loss and damage fund to support the poorest and most vulnerable countries [1].
“The absence of a phase out of fossil fuels in the draft text leaves the 1.5C target on life support. Calling on nations to reduce consumption and production of fossil fuels fails to treat climate breakdown as the emergency it is and leaves the planet on course for a hellish future.
“As for climate inequality, it is clear that lobbyists from the wealthy fossil fuel industry and petrostates have been driving this summit, wielding way too much power and leaving vulnerable nations, women, young people and campaigners on the sidelines.
“COP28 may have failed to do enough to meet the urgent demands of the climate crisis but it has made our demands for more action now ever clearer and louder.
“In the UK that means cancelling new oil and gas licences in the North Sea; it means ramping up investment in onshore and offshore wind, and other forms of renewable energy; and it means funding local councils to deliver a nationwide programme of home and business insulation to cut energy use and lower people’s bills.”
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