The UN's major climate summit in Belém, Brazil, was a demonstration of how divided the world's countries are when it comes to their views on fossil fuels. A group of 86 countries demanded that a roadmap for phasing out coal, oil and gas be included in the final document. But an equally large group refused.
The compromise solution was that a voluntary plan should be developed for those countries that want to.
"It's about finding this slightly smaller forum with like-minded people who want to move forward. If they can formalize it and make a binding agreement in this more limited group of countries, it can develop into an active, well-functioning climate club," says Mathias Fridahl, assistant professor at Linköping University.
“Clear momentum”
During the year, Brazil will refine the roadmap and a first test for the club will be a meeting in Colombia at the end of April, where the Netherlands is co-organizer.
"There is clear momentum to phase out fossil fuels, and now is the time to take advantage of it," said Dutch Climate Minister Sophie Hermans in a press release .
Exactly what a roadmap might contain is unclear. Mathias Fridahl says that it is conceivable that the countries could eventually be included in the EU's emissions trading system and the upcoming climate tax system. It could also involve jointly starting to remove the subsidies that still exist for fossil fuels, or phasing out the use of fossil fuels in electricity production.
Risk of smallpox
The question is whether, when it comes down to it, the countries really want the same thing, when Kenya, Sweden, Colombia and the other countries actually sit down at the negotiating table.
"It's hard to know where these initiatives are going. It often ends up in a vacuum," says Fridahl.
But we won't know until we try it. It's good that this has been tested, it hasn't been done before in this way.
