COP28: Nations sign first-ever climate agreement to transition away from fossil fuels

Following a backlash to an earlier proposal that prompted the COP28 summit to be postponed, a new draft document calling for the world to wean itself off of planet-warming fossil fuels has been presented at the climate negotiations in Dubai.

After the previous form was criticized for listing potential actions that may be taken to prevent dangerous global warming, a revised version of the text explicitly “calls on” all nations to make contributions through a variety of acts.

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

“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.”

Although the text did not include the words “phase out”, campaigners said the latest draft was better than the previous version.

“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.”

The United Arab Emirates (UAE)-led presidency presented delegates from nearly 200 nations with a new central document called the global stock take just after sunrise.

It is the third version of the document to be presented in about two weeks and the word “oil” does not appear anywhere in the 21-page document. It mentions “fossil fuels” twice, but Alden Meyer, a veteran climate negotiations analyst at the European think tank E3G, said that if approved, it would be somewhat of a first mention of fossil fuels in the context of getting rid of them.

The aim of the global stock take is to help nations align their national climate plans with the 2015 Paris Agreement, which calls to limit warming to 1.5C (2.7F).

The world is already on its way to smashing the record for the hottest year, endangering human health and leading to ever more costly and deadly extreme weather.