'Open Letter: The World Needs A Transformational Outcome, Not More Voluntary Pledges', 1 December 2023

Dear COP28 Presidency,

Over 320 civil society organizations say:

This United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) must unlock an equitable global energy transition that phases out fossil fuels – the primary cause of the climate crisis. 

COP28 has the potential to be an historic moment in confronting the climate crisis. The COP28 Presidency has an opportunity to secure a transformational negotiated outcome, if it secures a robust negotiated energy package, including an unambiguous agreement to end all new oil and gas expansion, a clear call to equitably and rapidly phase out all fossil fuels, and a commitment to triple deployment of nature-positive and community-beneficial renewable energy and double energy efficiency.

However, instead of focusing on this historic opportunity, the COP28 Presidency appears to have been encouraging fossil fuel companies to make yet another set of hollow voluntary pledges, with no accountability mechanism or guarantee the companies will follow through. Releasing another in the long succession of voluntary industry commitments that end up being breached will not make COP28 a success. Voluntary efforts are insufficient, and are a distraction from the task at hand.

Over 310 civil society organizations agree: COP28 must adopt a comprehensive energy transformation package with legal force – including a full, fast, fair, and funded fossil fuel phaseout, renewable energy and energy efficiency targets, real protections for people and nature, and massively scaled up public funding on fair terms. This is a chance for the COP28 Presidency to show true leadership.

This year, the International Energy Agency (IEA) reiterated its finding multiple times that any new oil, gas and coal expansion beyond existing fields and mines is incompatible with keeping warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius (°C). The November 2023 update of the Global Oil & Gas Exit List confirmed that oil and gas companies worldwide still plan to produce far more oil and gas than can ever be burned to limit warming to 1.5ºC – with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) ranking very worst in terms of overshoot beyond the IEA’s 1.5ºC scenario.

The only way to achieve the ambition of the Paris Agreement is to substantially reduce the extraction and consumption of fossil fuels, starting now. In fact, Oil Change International research shows that far too much oil, gas, and coal is already developed: 60% of the fossil fuels in currently active fields and mines must stay in the ground to limit global temperature to 1.5 °C.

Despite this, fossil fuel companies and their enablers – including some governments – appear to be trying to ignore the scientific reality, pretending cutting their operational emissions is enough to meet climate targets, while approving new projects that expand overall oil and gas production and worsen the climate crisis.

Through this year, media reports have covered successive versions of COP28 Presidency led “Global Decarbonization Accelerator” (the “Global Decarbonization Accelerator” has also been referenced as the “Oil and Gas Decarbonization Accelerator”, the “Oil and Gas Charter”, and the “Global Decarbonization Alliance”) that serves primarily to greenwash the fossil fuel industry. Even the most recent drafts appear to contain only limited commitments to address these companies’ operational emissions, while ignoring the vast majority of their total emissions. In reality, 80 to 90 percent of oil and gas companies’ emissions result when the fossil fuels they produce and sell are burned (called ‘scope 3’ emissions) – which this voluntary commitment entirely ignores.

Reducing oil and gas operational emissions without sharp reductions in overall fossil fuel production will fail to achieve the cuts in methane emissions necessary to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Cutting methane pollution from the oil and gas supply chain is an important component of near-term emissions reductions – but it is not enough on its own. A new report from the IEA and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition released October 11 makes clear that the only way to limit global temperature rise to 1.5ºC is to phase out fossil fuels, and that methane reductions serve only to ensure that operational emissions do not undermine progress toward that goal. The IEA has stated repeatedly that the story of carbon capture and storage “has largely been one of unmet expectations”. The only safe and effective way to “clean up” fossil fuel pollution is to phase out fossil fuels.

Methane emissions and gas flaring are symptoms of a more than century-long legacy of wasteful, destructive practices that are routine in the oil and gas industry as it pursues massive profits without regard for the consequences. That the industry, at this crucial moment in the climate emergency, is offering to clean up its mess around the edges in lieu of the rapid oil and gas phase-out that is needed is an insult to the billions impacted both by climate change and the industry’s appalling legacy of pollution and community health impacts. 

By refusing to commit to address the emissions from oil and gas being burned and to end fossil fuel expansion, the proposed ‘Global Decarbonization Accelerator’ would serve as a smokescreen to hide the reality that we need to phase out oil, gas, and coal. 

Voluntary commitments are a dangerous distraction from what is needed at COP28. Oil and gas companies meeting to sign a pledge that only deals with their operational emissions is like a group of arsonists meeting to promise to light fires more efficiently.

We encourage the COP28 Presidency to drop the Global Decarbonization Accelerator and instead work with all negotiators at COP to secure a comprehensive energy transition package, including a full, fair, fast, and funded phase-out of all fossil fuel production and use.