EU Member States Split on Fossil Fuel Phase Out Ahead of COP28

EU countries remain split ahead of Monday’s meeting on whether to agree for the first time to a phase out all fossil fuels ahead of the COP28 summit, EU Diplomats told Reuters.

• The EU member states’ climate and environment ministers are meeting on Monday in Luxembourg, partly for the preparation for the COP28 summit that starts 30 November in Dubai.
• Around 10 of the EU's 27 member countries including Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Slovenia want the EU to demand a phase-out of all fossil fuels during COP28.
• A similar number of countries - including the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Poland and Slovakia - want to phase out only “unbated” fossil fuels, that can not use capture technologies.
• A draft of the EU's negotiating position, seen by Reuters, would call for a "global phase-out of [unabated] fossil fuels and a peak in their consumption already in the near term".
• The EU countries must agree their negotiating position unanimously, meaning one government can block it.
• Fossil-fuel producers and consumers such as Saudi Arabia have blocked previous attempts to agree to a phase out and are expected to offer similar resistance during the COP28 summit.