Oil-rich Nations Launch ‘Pushback’ against Fossil Fuel Phase-out

Oil-rich nations are making a concerted effort to slow progress on a landmark UN climate agreement to end the use of fossil fuels, according to western nations taking part in global climate change talks. 

Negotiators from five western countries told the Financial Times that they were applying pressure to Azerbaijan as the host country for the upcoming UN COP29 summit to prioritise fossil fuel phase-out discussions, in an attempt to counter a “pushback” from the petrostates and their allies.

At COP28 in Dubai last December, almost 200 countries agreed to transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems by 2050 and to triple renewable energy capacity and double energy efficiency by 2030.

But the negotiators said that a group of countries including Saudi Arabia, Russia and Bolivia — which have historically proved a block to any global agreement to phase out the use of fossil fuels — were yet again frustrating progress.

Azerbaijan, which is heavily reliant on oil and gas exports economically, is seen as reluctant to champion a further shift away from oil and gas.

One negotiator from a major western country said that “there’s clearly pushback by some countries” in discussions about the fossil fuels agreement.

“We’re having to be very clear with Azerbaijan that this COP won’t be a success if we don’t also talk about the process of implementing mitigation, including the COP28 decision,” they said.

A negotiator from another western country added: “At this stage, it looks extremely bleak and there’s a real risk that large emitters within the G77 (group of developing nations) will use the difficult finance negotiations to block any meaningful progress on mitigation.”

At this year’s COP29, to be held in November, countries are due to agree on a new global goal for climate finance, with nations clashing about how much this should be, who pays and its structure.

At the weekend, African governments, including Nigeria, called for more than £1 trillion a year in climate finance. 

Oil and natural gas brings in about 80 per cent of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings.