A new draft agreement for the UN climate conference in Glasgow has been presented asking countries to phase out fossil fuel subsidies. Observers have commented that this new draft has been presented with a weaker language than the earlier text.
The new draft attempts to ensure the world will tackle global warming fast enough to stop it becoming catastrophic. observers said the deal did try to ensure that countries take action, albeit not as fast as scientists have urged, to try to keep global warming within the 1.5 degrees Celsius seen as the threshold to catastrophic changes.
The document also spells out that scientists say the world must cut greenhouse gas emissions – mostly the carbon dioxide produced by burning oil, gas and coal – by 45% from 2010 levels by 2030, and to net zero by 2050, to hit the 1.5C target. This would effectively set the benchmark that countries’ future climate pledges will be measured against.
The new draft also lacks details on future payments from rich countries that are primarily responsible for global warming to the poorer countries that will take the brunt of worsening storms, droughts and floods and rising sea levels. Poorer countries are furious that wealthy nations have still not fulfilled a 12-year-old promise to give $100 billion per year by 2020 to help them cut emissions and adapt to the worsening impacts of climate change
