The world agreed a new climate deal in Dubai on Wednesday at the COP28 summit after two weeks of talks, making an unprecedented call for transitioning away from fossil fuels but using vague language that could allow some countries to take minimal action.
The gavel went down on the agreement, known as the Global Stocktake, in the morning after the talks were pushed into overtime by marathon negotiations between countries bitterly divided over the future role for oil, gas and coal.
Some countries and climate experts say the COP28 deal signals the end of the fossil fuel era, but it falls short of calling on the world to “phase-out” oil, coal and gas — the ambitious language more than 100 countries and many climate groups have been calling for.
Instead, the agreement “calls on” countries to “contribute” to global efforts to reduce carbon pollution in ways they see fit, offering several options, one of which is “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems … accelerating action in this critical decade, so as to achieve net zero by 2050.”
COP28 President Sultan Al Jaber called the agreement “historic” in his speech before national delegates at the final session approving the agreement.
“We have language on fossil fuels in our final agreement for the first time ever,” he said.
“We have delivered a paradigm shift that has the potential to redefine our economies,” he added.
Many country delegates have celebrated the agreement as a significant step forward.
“All of us can find a paragraph or sentences, or sections, where we would have said it differently,” said US climate envoy John Kerry after the deal was agreed. But, he added, “to have as strong a document as has been put together, I find is cause for optimism, cause for gratitude and cause for some significant congratulations to everybody here.”
He added that the agreement was “much stronger and clearer as a call on 1.5 than we have ever heard,” referring to the internally-agreed ambition to restrict global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, a threshold beyond which scientists say humans and ecosystems will struggle to adapt.
The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), an intergovernmental organization, however, said it was “exceptionally concerned” about the agreement. “We have made an incremental advancement over business as usual when what we really needed is an exponential step-change,” it said in a statement.
Many climate experts, while cautiously welcoming the reference to fossil fuels in the agreement, point to weaknesses, including leaving the door open for fossil fuel expansion to continue.
“At long last the loud calls to end fossil fuels have landed on paper in black and white at this COP, but cavernous loopholes threaten to undermine this breakthrough moment,” said Jean Su, the energy justice director at the Center for Biological Diversity.
Harjeet Singh, the head of global political strategy at nonprofit Climate Action Network International, said “after decades of evasion, COP28 finally cast a glaring spotlight on the real culprits of the climate crisis: fossil fuels. A long-overdue direction to move away from coal, oil, and gas has been set.”
But, he added, “the resolution is marred by loopholes that offer the fossil fuel industry numerous escape routes, relying on unproven, unsafe technologies.”
The agreement also calls for an acceleration of technologies such as carbon capture and storage — a set of techniques being developed to pull carbon pollution from polluting facilities such as power plants and from the air, and store it underground.
Many scientists have expressed concern that carbon capture is expensive, unproven at scale and a distraction from policies to cut fossil fuel use.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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Dr. Sarah Adams is a scientist and science communicator who makes complex topics accessible to all. Her articles explore breakthroughs in various scientific disciplines, from space exploration to cutting-edge research.
