The end of fossil fuels?

Global warming has a friend. It is two words – fossil fuels. These are crude oil, coal and natural gas.

Oil, coal and natural gas account for up to 80 percent of the world’s energy and 85 percent of Philippine energy.

Sadly, fossil fuels also account for more than 75 percent of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Carbon dioxide accounts for 76 percent of total GHGs, methane 16 percent and nitrous oxide 6 percent. Since 1970, GHG emissions have increased 70 percent.

On Dec. 13, 2023, at the end of two weeks of raucous meetings during the world’s warmest year on record, 200 countries agreed, in writing, to put an end to the use of fossil fuels.

It is the first time in 28 annual meetings on climate change that the two words – fossil fuels – are mentioned in any agreement.

Agreement came at end of the latest or 28th Conference of Parties (COP28) called the United Nations Climate Change Conference, held in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, a major oil producing country.

COP28 president, UAE’s Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, summed up the COP28’s achievements: 

“A global goal to triple renewables and double energy efficiency. Declarations on agriculture, food and health. Many more oil and gas companies stepping up for the first time on methane and emissions. We have language on fossil fuels in our final agreement. All of these are world firsts. And all of these are crucial actions that will help shape a better, cleaner world with greater, more equitable prosperity. And then we became the first COP to host a change-makers Majlis. And I felt that that was the turning point in our negotiations.”

The agreement to end the use of fossil fuels is in Article 28-d) of the 11,000-word First Global Stockade Proposal of the COP28: “Transitioning away from fossil fuels, in a just, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action on this critical decade, so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science.”

The operative word is “transitioning,” which experts say could mean anything (there is no fixed timetable): a phase-down (for instance, 28-b) called for accelerating the phase-down of unabated coal power), a phaseout, a stoppage, an end. 

But transitioning implies one thing – as long as