SAWT BEIRUT INTERNATIONAL

| 14 February 2025, Friday |

COP28 leader urges nations to get out of ‘comfort zones’

COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber urged countries to break out of their comfort zones and collaborate to strike an agreement before the two-week conference ended.

“Let’s please get this job done,” he remarked as the summit began its most difficult round of negotiations.

“I need you to step up and I need you to come out of your comfort zones,” he said.

With five days left before the conference’s scheduled end on Dec. 12, country ministers are joining the deliberations on Friday.

Still unresolved is how the nearly 200 countries at COP28 will handle the thorny issue of fossil fuels, the main source of climate-warming emissions, with at least 80 countries demanding a COP28 agreement that calls for an eventual end to their use.

Such a position would be unprecedented, after three decades of U.N. climate summits that have never addressed the future role of fossil fuels head on.

Meanwhile, eastern European countries are working to resolve an impasse over where to hold next year’s COP29 summit after Russia said it would block any EU member as COP president.

As of Friday, the candidates included Azerbaijan, which offered to host the event. Both Moldova and Serbia have also offered to take on the rotating presidency.

    Source:
  • Reuters