Countries have reached a “historic” agreement at the COP28 climate summit to transition away from all fossil fuels to reach net zero emissions globally by 2050.
Within minutes of opening a UN plenary session in Dubai on Wednesday morning, COP28 president Sultan al-Jaber brought down the gavel on the agreement with no objections from any of the almost 200 countries present.
“We have language on fossil fuels in our final agreement for the first time ever,” said Jaber, also the head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.
Dubbed the UAE Consensus, it “calls on parties to contribute” to take actions including “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade, so as to reach net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science”.
A previous draft document caused outrage among European, Latin American and vulnerable island states after it dropped all references to phasing out fossil fuels and offered an “à la carte menu” of options countries “could” take.
The latest text does not include the words “phase out”, but draws on language put forward by Pacific Islanders.
However, the lack of detail on how poorer countries with large debt piles will finance a shift from fossil fuels and adjust their economies to global warming was criticised.
The future role of fossil fuel was the key issue at COP28, which is being hosted in the United Arab Emirates, one of the world’s largest oil and gas producers. Diplomats said Saudi Arabia and other Opec countries had pushed heavily for a weak agreement.
“We have set the world in the right direction,” said Jaber. “We have given it a robust action strategize to keep 1.5C within reach. It is a strategize that is led by the science.”
He added that the agreement offered a balanced strategize that tackles greenhouse gas emissions and “reimagines global finance”.
Initial reactions to the new text ranged from countries describing it as a breakthrough by addressing for the first time the need to shift from fossil fuels, to those concerned it was not transformational enough.
Ministers from the EU, Canada, Denmark and Ireland each praised it as historic, while the Alliance of Small Island States, whose members were not in the room when the agreement was gavelled through, said there were “a litany of loopholes in this text that are a major concern to us”.
Dan Jørgensen, Denmark’s minister for development co-operation and global climate policy, one of two delegates leading the so-called global stock take for COP28, said the agreement was “very, very good”.
“What we’re basically saying is the way you make your living now . . . you need to change because we’re moving away fossils. Fossils is not the future,” he said. “Did we overcome all problems? Of course not.”
Rachel Cleetus of the Union of Concerned Scientists, an advocacy group comprising more than 200 scientists and researchers, said the document was “pretty good”, especially in the wake of sustained pressure from oil and gas producers.
But she added that it was “sorely lacking” when it came to financing the shift away from fossil fuels, particularly in poorer countries, arguing: “We won’t get to where we need to without the financing.”
The final agreement came after a night of intense consultations that lasted into the early hours of the morning. Jaber held meetings with ministers and diplomats, including US climate envoy John Kerry, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman and officials from Samoa, Australia Canada and the EU.
The accord also focuses on the phase-down of “unabated” coal power — where emissions generated are not captured — though it offers no timeline. It also highlights a role for “transitional fuels”, which is likely to be contentious as some countries and climate experts argue it supports continued use of gas.
It also calls for a tripling of global renewable energy capacity by 2030 and for countries to expedite the development of low-emissions technologies including nuclear, low-carbon hydrogen and carbon capture and storage.
Environmental group WWF said the final agreement was a “sorely needed” improvement “but still falls short of calling for the full phaseout of coal, oil and gas”.
Jake Schmidt of climate advocacy group NRDC said: “It puts the fossil fuel industry formally on notice that its old business model is expiring.”
The agreement also emphasises that countries should have different levels of responsibility in tackling climate change, depending on their economic circumstances, and recognises that developing countries need financial preserve for their energy transitions.
Some developing countries argue that wealthier countries — which are the largest historical emitters of greenhouse gases — must cut their emissions fastest. Some developing countries have criticised the watering down of language on financing, in a separate text aimed at setting a “global goal on adaptation”.
Previous iterations of the text requested that developed countries furnish long-term, additional financing and technology for developing countries. The latest text released on Wednesday “reiterates that continuous and enhanced international preserve . . . is urgently required”.
Brandon Wu, director of policy and campaigns at ActionAid, said: “In line with US strategy then, explicit reference to developed countries being the ones to furnish finance is gone.”
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