The USA, China and Russia were left out – A new “coalition of the willing” is now driving the abandonment of oil and gas

Of all places, it was in Dubai that a historic statement was made in the fall of 2023: the UN climate conference hosted by the oil state outlined that the countries of the world should strive to move away from the use of fossil fuels in order to keep global warming within the limits of the Paris Agreement.

That is the end of the matter. Even in Finland, many export companies have adjusted their business to the fact that the role of fossil fuels will decrease and there will be a demand for new high technology, but that road seems to have new twists and turns all the time.

Coalitions of the willing have already become familiar, for example, in support for Ukraine, when the United States did not want to take any further veto responsibility on the matter Donald Trump’s under. Now the same thing is being tried in climate policy, when a common note on fossil fuels was no longer found at the climate meeting in Brazil last fall. The Trump administration skipped the meeting entirely.

Last week, the countries that still want to promote the transition away from fossil fuels gathered in Colombia. Finland was involved in addition to 55 other countries and the EU. In total, participants from different continents were represented about a third of the world economy.

The United States, China, Russia, India, the countries of the Persian Gulf and the oil industry lobbies, who apparently did not want to be there to stir things up, were left out.

The Iran war can be seen in another direction as well

The time for the meeting was suitable, since fossil fuels are already a hot topic in many countries after the Iran war raised the prices of oil and gas. This can be expected to increase the momentum for renewable energy investments, but other answers to the crisis can also be seen in the coalition of the willing.

For example, the Netherlands, which hosted the conference with Colombia, plans to increase gas production in the North Sea. Included in the plans is Germany, which has also considered putting closed coal power plants into operation in order to lower energy prices. In many countries, the result of the next election can also change the position on fossil energy.

What did you get out of the meeting in this situation? Participating countries were given a voluntary lesson to prepare road maps for phasing out of fossil fuels and lists of subsidies for obtaining fossil energy for next year’s meeting.

The end result doesn’t sound revolutionary at all, although the purpose was to show companies and investors, among others, that at least someone is kicking the can down the road. At the traditional negotiating tables, the goals driving emission reductions are now stuck. As recently as last week, there were still enough disagreements in the International Maritime Organization (IMO) about the rules of the game for reducing shipping’s carbon dioxide emissions, which should have already been clarified once.

The author is the editor-in-chief of Kauppalehti.