United Nations climate negotiators directed the world on Wednesday to transition away from planet-warming fossil fuels in a move the talks chief called historic, despite critics' worries about loopholes, per the AP. "Humanity has finally done what is long, long, long overdue," Wopke Hoekstra, European Union commissioner for climate action, said. After nearly 30 years of talking about carbon pollution, climate negotiators in a key document explicitly took aim at what's trapping the heat: the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas. Within minutes of opening Wednesday's session, COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber gaveled approval of the central document—the global stocktake that says how off-track the world is on climate and how to get back on—without asking for comments. Delegates stood and hugged each other.
It's a "balanced" but "historic package to accelerate climate action," said al-Jaber, who's also CEO of the UAE's oil company. "We have language on fossil fuel in our final agreement for the first time ever." "Fossil fuels" only appears twice in the 21-page document. It doesn't go so far as to seek a "phase-out" of fossil fuels, which more than 100 nations had pleaded for. Instead, it calls for "transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade." The deal says that the transition would be done in a way that gets the world to net zero greenhouse gas emissions in 2050. It projects a world peaking its carbon pollution by 2025 to reach its agreed-upon threshold, but gives wiggle room to individual nations like China to peak later.
The deal had been floated early Wednesday and was stronger than a draft proposed days earlier, but its loopholes upset critics. Analysts and delegates wondered if there was going to be a floor fight over details, but al-Jaber acted quickly, not giving critics a chance to even clear their throats. Several minutes later, Samoa's lead delegate Anne Rasmussen, on behalf of small island nations, complained that they weren't even in the room when al-Jaber said the deal was done. She said the deal represented business-as-usual instead of exponential emissions-cutting efforts and could "potentially take us backward rather than forward." Bolivia blasted the agreement as a new form of colonialism. But there was more self-congratulations Wednesday than flagellations.
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"I am in awe of the spirit of cooperation that has brought everybody together," UN Special Envoy John Kerry said. He said it shows that multilateralism can still work despite what the globe sees with wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. "This document sends very strong messages to the world." The deal also includes a call for tripling the use of renewable energy and doubling energy efficiency. Earlier in the talks, the conference adopted a special fund for poor nations hurt by climate change and nations put nearly $800 million in the fund. "Many, many people here would have liked clearer language" on getting rid of fossil fuels, Kerry said. But he said it's a compromise. Oil-rich Saudi Arabia, whose OPEC threatened to torpedo an agreement, hailed the deal as a success. (More UN climate summit stories.)
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