The world agreed to quit fossil fuels. Now it disagrees over the plan
Countries embrace clean energy but resist cutting fossil fuel production. That fault line is now shaping the UN's first transition roadmap, due at COP31 in November The post The world agreed to quit fossil fuels. Now it disagrees over the plan appeared first on Dialogue Earth .
Three years ago, nearly 200 nations agreed to transition away from using fossil fuels for energy systems. However, they now face difficulties in determining the specifics of this transition. The COP28 climate summit in Dubai marked the first UN climate summit to explicitly address the need to move away from coal, oil, and gas. Yet, it provided no mechanism to implement this commitment.
Brazil, president of the upcoming COP30 summit, has been working on a global roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels, to be presented at COP31 in November. This task is deemed more urgent than ever by Siân Bradley, head of the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance (BOGA) Secretariat.
Out of the 146 updated national climate action plans submitted to the UN as of August, 101 allude to moving away from fossil fuels, but only 12 detail how. This discrepancy stems from fundamental disagreements on the roadmap's content and objectives. Brazil initially tried to incorporate the roadmap into official negotiations in November 2023, but differences between countries prevented this. Instead, Brazil proposed a voluntary roadmap to be developed in 2026 in consultation with governments.
The roadmap will focus on four main areas: reforming the international financial architecture, strengthening capacity building, increasing cooperation, and prioritizing the just transition. However, concerns arise about repeating past mistakes, such as the USD 1.3 trillion climate finance roadmap, which critics argue lacks a clear plan for who is responsible for action.
Additionally, some countries, like Turkey hosting COP31, have not made the transition away from fossil fuels a priority, focusing instead on electrification. This highlights a tension at the heart of the roadmap: countries may support clean energy while being hesitant to discuss reducing fossil fuel production and use.
Producer countries have taken different stances. Russia argues that gas is a legitimate transition fuel, while Norway emphasizes that its gas production is already relatively low-emission. Different countries have varying understandings of what "moving away from fossil fuels" entails, depending on their production levels. Meanwhile, the least developed countries and small island states demand a roadmap with clear milestones, including a binding fossil fuel treaty to support a managed and equitable phase-out of these fuels.
This debate underscores the challenge of ensuring that the roadmap is not merely a descriptive exercise but a practical instrument to guide nations in transitioning away from fossil fuels.
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