United Arab Emirates: The United Arab Emirates has remarked that countries should agree to phase out fuel emissions (not the production of oil, gas, and coal) at UN climate talks this year.

The UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment, Ms. Mariam Almheiri, stated that phasing out fossil fuels would hurt countries that either depend on them for revenue or cannot easily replace hydrocarbons with renewable energy sources.

The UAE Minister favours phasing out fossil fuel emissions using capture and storage technology while ramping up renewable energy, saying this strategy allows countries to fight global warming while continuing to produce oil, gas, and coal.

“The renewable space is advancing and accelerating extremely fast, but we are nowhere near being able to say that we can switch off fossil fuels and solely depend on clean and renewable energy,” Ms. Almheiri commented on the sidelines of a climate conference in Washington, DC.

“We are now in a transition, and this transition needs to be just and pragmatic because not all countries have the resources,” the Minister added.

The comments reflect deep divisions among nations over how to combat the growing danger from climate change ahead of UN negotiations, known as COP28, to be held in Dubai from November 30 to December 12.

Some wealthy Western governments and climate-afflicted island nations have been pushing for a phaseout of fossil fuels, while resource-rich countries have campaigned to keep drilling.

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