A flawed but still transformative COP28 declaration signalled a transition out of fossil fuels and the dawn of renewable energy as United Nations climate negotiations concluded in Dubai, United Arab Emirates around noon local time today.
The COP28 decision text, released Wednesday morning, included language about “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems” and “reducing both consumption and production of fossil fuels in a just, orderly and equitable manner so as to achieve net zero by, or before, or around 2050 in keeping with the science”.
The historic provisions, arrived at after round-the-clock negotiations by climate ministers and other senior officials, appeared in the energy transition section of the 21-page document.
Initial analysis indicated the surrounding language was about as weak as it could be in the constellation of United Nations legal jargon, with phrasing that merely “calls on” countries to take action rather than pushing for it in stronger terms. But it was still a major advance over an earlier draft, published Monday by the COP28 Presidency, that was dismissed as “unacceptable”, “incoherent”, “grossly insufficient”, and a “slap in the face” by angry, frustrated, and increasingly sleep-deprived delegates.
“A call to transition energy systems away from fossil fuels—the first time oil and gas had been included in a COP agreement—won over those demanding strong action; but oil producers and developing countries were reassured by assertions that countries are free to follow their own paths to net zero,” Bloomberg News reports. “Taken together with a call to triple renewables deployment, [take] action on methane emissions, and get a loss and damage fund going, Dubai may well be the most significant COP since the Paris Agreement in 2015.”
Read more about this historic moment here. For a deeper dive, check out our COP28 archive.
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