The agreement reached at COP28 calls for a move away from fossil fuels

“We have the foundation to deliver transformative change,” COP28 chairman Sultan al-Jaber told the UN climate change summit in Dubai ahead of the consensus agreement.

The agreement contains stronger wording, calling for a move away from fossil fuels, but still does not use the term “phase-out”.

“You’ve really stepped up, you’ve shown flexibility, you’ve put the common interest above self-interest,” said al-Jaber, whose work as head of the United Arab Emirates National Oil Company raised the suspicions of many environmentalists.

The UAE, according to S. al Jaber, is rightly proud of its role in ensuring transformational change for the planet.

“The world needed to find a new way. And by following our star as a guide, we found this new path,” he said, referring to the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. His words were accompanied by applause.

A few hours earlier, al-Jaber announced a draft agreement that sought the participation of all parties, from island nations that fear extinction due to rising sea levels to Saudi Arabia, which wants to continue exporting its oil.

World reaction

Saudi Arabia welcomed the results of the UN climate conference and called them a great success.

“On behalf of the Arab Group, I thank all member countries for their efforts to successfully conduct the first global assessment of the situation,” said Saudi official Albara Tawfiq at the COP28 conference.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed the agreement reached at the conference as heralding a new world without coal or oil.

“Today’s agreement marks the beginning of the post-fossil era,” she announced on social networks. – The essential part of this historic agreement was definitely concluded in Europe. The whole world has agreed to our 2030 goals: to triple renewable energy and double energy efficiency by 2030.”

The call to divest from fossil fuels at the COP28 meeting is an important moment in maintaining the ambition to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the Dutch climate minister said on Wednesday.

“For the first time, the world is talking about getting off fossil fuels,” wrote Rob Jetten on X. “More ambition is always better, but 1.5 degrees remains within reach.”

Brazil said that once the agreement is adopted, rich countries must take the lead in transitioning to a new energy system and give developing countries the necessary tools to follow suit.

“It is very important that developed countries take the initiative to transition away from fossil fuels,” Brazil’s Environment Minister Marina Silva told a meeting in Dubai.

France called the deal a victory, among other things, because it supports nuclear power, which is strongly supported by Paris.

“The just-adopted COP28 agreement is a victory for multilateralism and climate diplomacy,” French Energy Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher said in Dubai.

“Now we have to prepare a plan to get rid of fossil fuels, and we will pay a lot of attention to that,” she said.

Samoa said the small island nation was concerned about several parts of the Dubai deal, drawing applause from delegates at the meeting.

“We’ve made incremental progress compared to business as usual, but we really needed to change our actions quickly,” said Anne Rasmussen, Samoa’s chief negotiator, whose country holds the presidency of the Union of Small Island States.

US envoy John Kerry hailed the agreement as a hopeful sign of global cooperation in a conflict-torn world.

“I think everyone gathered here should be happy that in a world where there is war in Ukraine, the Middle East and all the other challenges on the planet,” Mr. Kerry said, there is “ground for optimism, gratitude and important congratulations to everyone here.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres responded to the agreement by saying that the era of fossil fuels must end.

“And it must end justly and fairly,” Guterres said in a statement.

Contributions are clearly requested

The draft text was released early on Wednesday after a night of wrangling. It also calls for “accelerating action in this crucial decade”, giving it more urgency than the previous proposal, which was rejected by many green-leaning countries.

An earlier draft of the agreement was also criticized for containing a list of optional actions that countries “could” take to combat climate change.

The new text clearly asks all parties to contribute to a series of actions.

These actions include “a just and orderly transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems, accelerating action in this crucial decade to reach net zero carbon by 2050 while keeping up with the science.”

The text mentions all types of fossil fuels for the first time in the 28 years since these climate meetings have been held.

“For the first time in 30 years, we can reach the beginning of the end of fossil fuels,” European Union Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra said before the plenary session.

Denmark’s negotiator, climate and energy minister Dan Jorgensen, who was part of the group responsible for moving forward, called the agreement a historic advance.

The text calls for phasing out power generation from coal, but the wording chosen means that coal can continue to be used if polluting carbon capture technology is used. Many environmentalists consider this technology unrealistic.

“The Death Penalty”

In Dubai, a glitzy metropolis built on petrodollars, the 14-day debate revolved around how far to go and whether to issue a historic call to cut consumption of oil, gas and coal, the biggest contributors to global warming.

Low-lying island nations feel an existential threat from rising sea levels and increasingly dangerous storms. The Marshall Islands’ previous draft agreement was likened to a death sentence.

The bloc of small island states said the revised text was better, but reiterated its concerns and said the deal was not transformative.

Virtually all environmentalists see the new text as better, but many have warned that much more needs to be done.

“Finally, we’re saying there’s an elephant in the room. This genie will never go back into the bottle and the coming COPs (annual UN climate conferences) will only increase the pressure on “dirty” energy,” said Mohamed Adow, director of the Power Shift Africa think tank.

“Some may have had too high expectations for this meeting, but [esamas] the result would have been unheard of two years ago, especially in a COP meeting in an oil country,” he said.

The agreement also clarifies short-term goals: the world is called upon to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 43 percent by 2030 compared to 2019 levels.

As Rachel Cleetus, representing the non-governmental organization Union of Concerned Scientists, said, the agreement “sends a strong signal that world leaders recognize that a sharp transition away from fossil fuels is necessary to achieve climate goals.” [ir atsigręžimas] to clean energy in this crucial decade and beyond, based on science.”

Gaps

But Jean Su of the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity, while acknowledging progress, said there are still big gaps for fossil fuels.

The agreement deals only with the use of fossil fuels for energy production and does not mention industrial areas such as the production of plastics and fertilizers.

Mr. Su also expressed concern over the recognition of the role of “transition fuel,” saying it was a code name for countries that extract natural gas and other fossil fuels, such as the United States, and that they would be able to rely on energy security.

Over 88,000 people participated in the largest COP conference in the history of their preparation. people, including a record number of fossil fuel industry lobbyists.

At the 2015 Paris meeting, it was agreed to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. This goal is reiterated in the latest text, but critics say it is virtually impossible to achieve without serious efforts to reduce oil, gas and coal consumption.