COP28 Draft: World takes aim at fossil fuels, eyes net zero by 2050

• The new COP28 draft urges a global transition away from fossil fuels.
• Revised language responds to criticism of earlier proposals lacking clear action.
• Activists welcome improvement but still call for full fossil fuel phase-out.

At the United Nations COP28 climate conference in Dubai, a new draft language advocating for the world to gradually wean itself off of fossil fuels that warm the earth has been proposed. The summit was postponed due to protests against an earlier proposal.

The revised document clearly “calls on” all nations to contribute through a series of activities, in response to criticism directed at the previous draft for providing a list of options that “could” be adopted to counteract the planet’s dangerous warming.

According to the statement, among the measures are “accelerating action in this critical decade, so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science” and “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner.”

“It is the first time that the world unites around such a clear text on the need to transition away from fossil fuels,” said Norway’s minister for climate and the environment, Espen Barth Eide. “It has been the elephant in the room – at last, we address it head-on. This is the outcome of extremely many conversations and intense diplomacy.

Despite the absence of the phrase “phase out,” activists claimed that the most recent draft was superior than the earlier one.

“This draft is a sorely needed improvement from the last version, which rightly caused outrage,” said Stephen Cornelius, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)’s deputy global climate and energy lead. “The language on fossil fuels is much improved but still falls short of calling for the full phase-out of coal, oil and gas.”

Prolonged and intense deliberations lasted deep into Wednesday morning after the conference presidency’s first paper infuriated many nations by omitting clear calls for action on fossil fuels, which are the primary cause of global warming.

Just after morning, representatives from around 200 countries were given a new key document, known as the global stocktake, by the presidency led by the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The 21-page paper is the third iteration to be submitted in roughly two weeks, and nowhere in it does the term “oil” appear. Although “fossil fuels” are mentioned twice, if adopted, according to Alden Meyer, a seasoned climate negotiations analyst at the European think tank E3G, it would be the first time that fossil fuels are mentioned in relation to their eventual elimination.

One of the biggest oil producers in the world, the United Arab Emirates, has been under fire for its conference’s early ties to fossil fuel interests, particularly after Sultan al-Jaber, the head of a state oil company, was chosen to chair the talks.

The global stocktake’s objective is to assist countries in bringing their national climate policies into compliance with the 2015 Paris Agreement, which sets a 1.5C (2.7F) warming limit.

The world is rapidly approaching breaking the record for the hottest year, putting human health at risk and bringing on increasingly expensive and deadly extreme weather.

After a few hours to review the revised wording, nations are anticipated to convene once more. The text could be approved at that meeting or returned to the negotiators for more changes.

Some of the topics covered in other documents that were unveiled early on Wednesday included how much money should be set aside to assist less developed countries in reducing their carbon emissions and adjusting to climate change.

At upcoming climate conferences in Brazil and Azerbaijan over the next two years, a number of financial difficulties are expected to be worked out.

According to UNEP estimates, developing countries require $194–366 billion annually to assist in their adaptation to a world that is getting warmer and wilder.

“Overall, I think this is a stronger text than the prior versions we have seen,” said the UN Foundation’s senior adaptation adviser, Cristina Rumbaitis del Rio. “But it falls short in mobilising the financing needed to meet those targets.”

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