Guyana’s Head of State, Irfaan Ali has urged world leaders to cast aside the “doctrinaire approach” towards achieving net zero by 2050, and devise realistic solutions as climate action cannot be to the detriment of the world’s developing countries and poorest people.
The President was speaking on Friday at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of Parties (COP) 28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).
He said COP28 cannot achieve its desired purposes, by ensuring the globe fully accomplishes net zero, if global stakeholders are not unified on the matter at hand.
“If the debate at COP28 is framed by two camps: one calling for no cuts in fossil fuel production, including the most polluting form such as coal, and the other saying that the only solution to net zero is an end to fossil fuel production, then we will fail once again to achieve a viable outcome, and not to give our world the energy it needs to grow and prosper,” President Ali said.