The third vice-president and Minister of Ecological Transition of Spain, Teresa Ribera, said that she does not foresee an end to fuel subsidies fossils, for the time being, in the proposal for the climate agreement of the COP summit27 in Egypt. Speaking to journalists at the event, Ribera said that there is a very long list of elements that must be included in the final agreement, but there is no mention of the end of fossil fuels.
At the Glasgow summit held the previous year, one of the discussions was the commitment to phase out coal-fired power generation and inefficient fossil fuel subsidies. “There is something that we think cannot be abandoned, which is the commitment reached in Glasgow to reduce and phase out fossil fuel subsidies and leave the carbon economy behind, and this still does not appear on the list of aspects included in the proposal of the Egyptians”, highlighted Ribera.11
Another discussion is how to finance compensation to poorer countries for losses and damages caused by the effects of climate change. The minister recognized that this topic is fundamental for many African countries and that there is no single tool to solve the problem. “We are talking about different realities that require different answers (…) It is perhaps one of the most sensitive and politically complex issues of the negotiations as a whole”, he added.