President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, confronted by Dominika Lasota, climate justice activist from Poland, confirms the EU’s support for the full fossil fuel phase out in the final COP28’s agreement.
COP 28: European Commission's President Ursula von der Leyen after delivering a speech during the World Leaders Summit is still in Dubai, where climate negotiations have just started and has just confirmed EU’s support for the full fossil fuel phase out in the final COP28’s agreement. [VIDEO]
Climate justice activists are outnumbered by the enormous group of fossil fuel lobbyists yet they are strongly sticking to the demands needed for this summit to be a success and a chance for a safe future. They are more than sure that the much needed success from this conference would be an unambiguous statement from all 197 countries on how they intend to completely phase out fossil fuels. The outcome civic society is wishing for is that the final agreement will not include watered down broken compromises such as the phrase “unabated fossil fuels” or Glasgow’s “unabated coal”.
Activists from the EU are also in Dubai - amongst them a group of Polish campaigners connected to the Fridays for Future movement that have recently played a significant role in Poland’s parliamentary elections. Dominika Lasota, Polish Sunrise’s co-founder and Fridays For Future activist, has confronted European Commission’s President Ursula von der Leyen on December 2nd in the morning, asking her whether the EU’s stands on the side of its full support for the full fossil fuel phase out as one of the outcome’s of this year’s final agreement. Up to this point, despite the EU's ambitious PR, the negotiators were unsure whether the EU would be openly pushing for the full, unambiguous statement on the fossil fuel phase out. In conversation with Lasota, von der Leyen has claimed that “phasing out is the EU’s goal”.
“Europe must not stand on the side of the fossil lobby, but on the side of the people that need its rapid action the most. How are we to overcome the blockades of the undemocratic big oil states - like Saudi Arabia or Russia - if the European Union shows weak and doubtful efforts about the fossil fuel phase out? It is 2023, it’s been more than 30 years since the COP show has started, we deserve to see our leaders finally abandoning the lobby and delivering us the long-awaited breakthrough - the end of the fossil fuel era that we are ready for” - comments Dominika Lasota after the confrontation.
Contact for media inquiries and comments:
wiktoria@wschod.org | +48 697 849 129 [preferably WhatsApp and Signal]