The summary report released earlier this week by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) continues to be written about, with several media outlets focusing on a summary of the report's approval process published by the Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) Climate Home News reports that governments “ fought over how their favorite green technologies are described'. It says: “When the governments met in Switzerland to approve the report, the Saudi-led group pushed for an emphasis on removing carbon from the atmosphere through carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies. But the group of mostly European countries wanted the report to say that solar and wind electricity "is currently cheaper than fossil fuel energy in many regions." Germany said the sentence was of "paramount" importance, but according to the summary, Saudi Arabia "strongly objected to the inclusion of this sentence". CHN adds: “The representative of the Bahamas called for the report to explicitly state that unlike wind and solar, CCS technology is not being discounted. But Saudi Arabia pushed back, saying CCS and CDR were "in fact necessary." The paragraph they discussed ended up referring to the "sustained reduction" in the cost of solar, wind and batteries with no mention of CCS or CDR." Bloomberg coverage focuses on how countries including China, the US, Saudi Arabia and Norway have "weakened " message. And Quartz notes that the ENB summary is excluded from smaller “meetings” where detailed discussions take place. News portal Distilled published an article with the headline: "How meat and fossil fuel producers undermined the latest IPCC report". The journal Carbon Brief has now published its detailed summary of the IPCC report, which also draws on the ENB reports.
Isabella Kaminski, Climate Home News