- World leaders have agreed to move away from fossil fuels
- 'Historic' deal, which is non-binding, negotiated in the UAE over the past two weeks
World leaders have agreed for the first time to move away from fossil fuels at the COP28 climate talks in Dubai, after a 'historic' climate change deal was approved by almost 200 countries this morning.
Sultan al-Jaber, the chairman of COP28, said delegates had come “a long way in a short time.”
The agreement marks the first time in nearly three decades of annual U.N. climate summits that the world has agreed to language explicitly limiting future use of fossil fuels.
Al-Jaber praised the climate agreement as a “historic package” of measures that provided a “robust plan” to keep the 1.5 degrees Celsius target within reach.
“We have achieved a paradigm shift that has the potential to redefine our economies,” he said at the closing session of the COP28 summit, shortly after the deal was approved.
COP28 President Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber hugs UNFCCC Executive Secretary Simon Stiell after a draft negotiating agreement was released
The non-binding 'global stocktake' agreement was negotiated over the past two weeks during the conference in the UAE
He added a warning: “An agreement is only as good as its implementation. We are what we do, not what we say.'
The non-binding 'global stocktake' agreement has been negotiated at the UAE conference over the past two weeks, with delegates staying up until 5am this morning to get the wording right.
In 21 pages and nearly 200 paragraphs, the agreement outlines a path away from the use of fossil fuels to “achieve net zero by 2050.”
The signatories pledged to “contribute… to the transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems in a just, orderly and equitable manner.”
It calls for a tripling of renewable energy capacity worldwide by 2030, accelerating efforts to reduce coal use and accelerating technologies such as carbon capture and storage that can clean up hard-to-carbon industries.
Furthermore, it is recognized that global emissions are likely to peak before 2025, with developing countries likely to peak slightly later.
The deal also 'reiterates' that developed countries are supporting more vulnerable states facing the potential impacts of climate change, such as rising sea levels.
Oil, gas and coal currently produce about 80% of the world's energy, and few agree when global demand will peak.
But increasing support for renewable energy around the world, along with improving technology, falling costs and rising private investment, has also led to rapid growth in its deployment.
The Secretary General of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Haitham Al Ghais, had said in a December 6 letter to OPEC members and allies during COP28 that the world should focus on emissions instead on the fossil fuels themselves. deal focused on oil.
Oil producers have argued that fossil fuels can be cleansed of their climate impact by using technology that can capture and store carbon dioxide emissions.
However, carbon capture is expensive and has yet to be proven on a large scale.