COP28 ENDS WITH HISTORIC DEAL TO TACKLE CLIMATE CHANGE CRISIS
▶ World adopts UAE Consensus after two weeks of negotiations ▶ Pact comes after agreements on loss and damage and financing ▶ President Sheikh Mohamed hails ‘significant results’ of talks in Dubai
The Cop28 summit in Dubai ended yesterday with countries around the world agreeing on a historic deal to tackle the effects of climate change.
The pact was reached at 11.13am, with Cop28 President Dr Sultan Al Jaber bringing the gavel down to announce the agreement just minutes into a plenary session. It was a remarkable moment in a world riven by conflict and division.
The deal was nearly three decades in the making and it challenges countries to make the move from fossil fuels to cleaner energy.
It calls for a transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems “in a just, orderly and equitable manner … so as to achieve net zero by 2050, in keeping with the science”. The agreement, informally called the UAE Consensus, was adopted after about two weeks of hard-fought talks in Dubai.
The deal builds on the summit’s early successes, including the launch of the loss and damage fund on the first day and pledges of more than $80 billion in climate finance.
President Sheikh Mohamed said the summit provided “significant results” and vowed to push ahead in search of a “more sustainable future for our planet”.
“As Cop28 concludes in the UAE, I thank all the participating delegations that worked together to achieve the historic UAE Consensus to accelerate climate action,” Sheikh Mohamed wrote on social media.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, also hailed the success of the talks.
“The conference has set new standards in climate action and solidified the UAE’s position as a key player in building a sustainable future for the planet,” Sheikh Mohammed said.
Dr Al Jaber said it was a “historic agreement” but that there was more work to do.
“We are what we do, not what we say,” he said.
“We must take the steps
necessary to turn this agreement into tangible action.”
The picture had looked different on Monday when a draft deal prompted a backlash from many parties, including the EU and vulnerable small island states, for weak language on fossil fuels, which are the primary driver of climate change.
Intense rounds of negotiations followed and pushed the summit a full day into overtime yesterday.
Just after 11am the deal was done. After a year of meetings and two weeks of talks, it was all over in a few hours.
The agreement running to more than 20 pages is the main outcome from the summit. It seeks to keep the global temperature limit of 1.5°C within reach and avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
US climate envoy John Kerry said he was in awe of the progress made at Cop28 considering the geopolitical tensions around the world. “Everyone will find paragraphs where we might have said something differently. This is a cause for optimism and gratitude,” he said.
“This document sends a very strong message to the world.”
Wopke Hoekstra, the EU’s climate commissioner, said it was a day of “gratitude and of silent determination”.
“Humanity has finally done what is long overdue,” said Mr Hoekstra. “Thirty years we’ve spent to arrive at the beginning of the end of fossil fuels.”
Jennifer Morgan, Germany’s climate envoy, also hailed a “historic decision”.
“There is an unmistakable signal that future is renewables and not fossil fuels,” said Ms Morgan.
The deal will be seen as a major victory for the Cop28 Presidency and the UAE which has spent the past year deeply engaged in talks to ensure the summit at Expo City Dubai was a success.
The Cop28 deal is formally called the Global Stocktake and assesses for the first time how the world is meeting the goals of the 2015 Paris deal that tries to limit warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
The UN has warned that the world is way off track and headed for warming of 3°C which would have major consequences for the health and livelihoods of billions of people.
The new text, arguably the biggest achievement since the Paris agreement in 2015, also calls for a tripling of renewable energy capacity globally by 2030, increasing efforts to cut coal use, and boosting technologies such as carbon capture and storage in certain areas that can be difficult to decarbonise.
Brent crude prices were down about 9.5 per cent as of 3.28pm yesterday compared with the settling price on November 30, when the climate summit started.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the deal reaffirms the importance of limiting warming to 1.5°C this decade.
Mr Guterres said the outcome recognised for the first time the need to transition away from fossil fuels after “many years in which the discussion of this issue was blocked”.
“To those who opposed a clear reference to a phase-out of fossil fuels in the Cop28 text, I want to say that a fossil fuel phase-out is inevitable whether they like it or not. Let’s hope it doesn’t come too late.”
Simon Stiell, UN climate change chief, thanked the UAE for hosting the summit and for steering the process through difficult hurdles.
But he warned that the world is still heading towards being 3°C hotter than it was before the industrial age.
“We must get on with the job of putting the Paris agreement to full work,” said Mr Stiell.
“While we didn’t turn the page on the fossil fuel era in Dubai, this outcome is the beginning of the end.”