On Wednesday, nearly 200 nations meeting in Dubai accepted the world’s first-ever call for a transition away from fossil fuels, the leading cause of climate change and a planetary calamity.
The Emirati leadership of the COP28 conference pounded a gavel to announce the globe had reached consensus after 13 days of talks and another sleepless night in a country based on oil wealth.
“You did step up, you showed flexibility, you put common interest ahead of self-interest,” said COP28 president Sultan Al Jaber, whose role as head of the United Arab Emirates’ national oil company raised suspicion among many environmentalists.
The United Arab Emirates, he said, was “rightly proud” of its role in bringing “transformational change” to the planet.
“The world needed to find a new way. And by following our North Star, we have found that new path,” he said to applause, referring to the goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Jaber had earlier issued a draft of the deal aimed at bringing governments from extinction-threatened islands on board with Saudi Arabia, which has led the drive to keep exporting its oil.
The agreement, which toughens language from a previous draft that was widely condemned, asks for “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems in a just, orderly, and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade, so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in accordance with science.”
It was the first time in 28 years of climate meetings that all fossil fuels were mentioned.
“For the first time in 30 years, we might now reach the beginning of the end of fossil fuels,” EU climate chief Wopke Hoekstra said before heading into the plenary session.
The accord was described as “historic progress” by Danish negotiator Dan Jorgensen, who was part of a panel in charge of making progress.
The document, however, stopped short of proposals made during the summit for a “phase-out” of oil, gas, and coal, which account for roughly three-quarters of the emissions that are causing the global crisis.
Low-lying islands fear extinction as sea levels rise and storms worsen, with the Marshall Islands calling the previous draft a “death warrant.”
The tiny island states bloc praised the revised language “an improvement,” but expressed worries that the agreement was “incremental and not transformational.”
UAE steps up language
Jaber’s earlier draft merely suggested that nations “could” reduce the consumption and production of fossil fuels, among other options, drawing fury from green groups.
Environmentalists virtually all saw the new text as an improvement, although many cautioned that there will still far more to do.
“We are finally naming the elephant in the room. The genie is never going back into the bottle and future COPs will only turn the screws even more on dirty energy,” said Mohamed Adow, director of the Power Shift Africa think tank, referring to the annual UN climate meetings known as Conferences of the Parties.
“Some people may have had their expectations for this meeting raised too high, but this result would have been unheard off two years ago, especially at a COP meeting in a petrostate,” he said.
The accord also made the near-term objective of zero net emissions by 2050 more explicit.
It urged the globe to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 43 percent by 2030 compared to current levels.
The Union of Concerned Scientists’ policy director, Rachel Cleetus, said the agreement “sends a strong signal that world leaders recognize that a sharp shift away from fossil fuels toward clean energy in this critical decade and beyond, aligned with science, is essential to meet our climate goals.”
Still loopholes
While acknowledging progress, Jean Su of the Center for Biological Diversity warned there were still “cavernous loopholes” for fossil fuels.
The agreement only addresses fossil fuel consumption in energy, not in industrial fields such as plastics and fertilizer manufacturing.
She also expressed concern about the role of “transitional fuels,” which she saw as a codeword for producers of natural gas and other fossil fuels, such as the United States, in terms of energy security.
While it does not use the word “phase-out” of fossil fuels, it does support efforts to eliminate “unabated coal power” — which means that coal with carbon capture technology to cut emissions, which many environmentalists dismiss as unproven, might remain.
More than 88,000 individuals attended the largest-ever COP gathering, including a record number of lobbyists from the fossil fuel industry.
The 2015 Paris meeting approved limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, a goal reiterated in the latest draft but critics argue is nearly impossible to achieve without substantial steps to reduce oil, gas, and coal use.