Closing summary
We’re winding up the Cop liveblog for the day. It kicked off this morning with new draft texts that were published overnight to howls of dismay.
The main events:
Countries reacted with anger to the Cop29 draft text for its lack of numbers on climate finance and lack of progress on cutting pollution
The Cop29 presidency defended the draft and promised concrete figures as of Thursday evening
The UN Secretary-General warned that “failure is not an option”
UK politicians clashed over the country’s commitment to climate targets
Saudi Arabia’s long-running defence of fossil fuels spilled out into the open
Coal-rich Indonesia announced plans to phase out all fossil fuel power plants by 2040
Those are the key points we covered today. We’ll be back with you tomorrow morning for another day of live coverage on what should be – but very likely won’t be – the final day of negotiations.
Updated
Coal-rich Indonesia to phase out all fossil fuel power plants by 2040
Progress in fighting the climate crisis is slow and good news rare. But an important announcement was made by Indonesia at the recent G20 and got buried by the noise of COP29.
President Prabowo Subianto said: “We plan to phase out coal-fired and all fossil-fueled power plants within the next 15 years. Our plan includes building over 75GW of renewable energy capacity during this time.”
He said Indonesia is experiencing the direct effects of global heating, including rising sea levels along the north coast of Java: “This issue will exacerbate poverty and hunger. Therefore, for Indonesia, there is no alternative. We are fully committed to taking decisive actions to reduce global temperatures, protect the environment, and address the crisis.”
The move to end coal use is “very significant” and a surprise, said Matt Webb, at thinktank E3G and a former UK government official who worked on the Just Energy Transition Partnership through which rich G7 nations are helping to fund Indonesia’s energy transition.
“Indonesia is the fifth or sixth biggest global emitter and it’s been growing its coal pipeline rapidly for the last 10 years,” he said, adding that it has also been the world’s biggest coal exporter in recent years. “So this is a country with huge coal reserves and which had a huge new coal plant pipeline. Until the Cop26 summit in 2021, it hadn’t really indicated that it would change that approach.”
“So what’s happened in the last two years is really dramatic – it’s a significant turnaround for a major exporter and a major user of coal power,” he said. Coal is the most polluting all fossil fuels and its use must end to halt global heating.
Indonesia is also home to vast forests, which have suffered extensive destruction in the past for palm oil and timber production. Deforestation there fell rapidly from 2017-2022, but nickel mining has caused a recent spike.
Subianto also said his country would increase biodiesel use to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Producing diesel from crops like palm oil has caused deforestation in the past. “That will have to be watched very carefully,” Webb said. “But we do also use biomass in the UK.”
