UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on COP28 to reach an agreement on phasing out fossil fuels, urging negotiators to show flexibility in the final hours of the climate summit, AFP reported.
Less than a day before the summit was scheduled to close in Dubai, Guterres flew back and warned there were still "major gaps" preventing consensus from being reached.
"We are in a race against time," Guterres told reporters.
"Now is the time for maximum ambition and maximum flexibility," Guterres said. "It's time to go into overdrive to negotiate in good faith."
Guterres, who has made climate change his top priority, urged negotiators to focus "solely on tackling the root cause of the climate crisis - the production and consumption of fossil fuels".
He urged the summit to recognize "the need to phase out all fossil fuels" - a position opposed by oil producers led by Saudi Arabia. In his call for flexibility, Guterres said the concerns of fossil fuel producers must also be addressed and that not all countries will bear the same immediate responsibility.
The call to action "does not mean that all countries should divest from fossil fuels at the same time," Guterres said.
"But this means that the global phase-out of fossil fuels must be compatible with net zero in 2050 and with a limit on temperature rise of 1.5°C" above pre-industrial levels, he said. /BGNES
