2023-12-13 10:02:32
The Dubai Climate Summit (COP28) agrees to begin a transition away from fossil fuels after two weeks of intense negotiations in which nearly 200 countries have debated how to collectively tackle the climate crisis.
The countries represented at COP28 adopted this Wednesday the ‘Global Balance’, the agreement with which they aspire to strengthen their climate action to contain the increase in temperature and ensure that it does not exceed one and a half degrees compared to pre-industrial levels.
Said agreement, approved by consensus in plenary, calls on states to begin a transition away from fossil fuels, “in an orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade, in order to achieve the goal of zero emissions.” in 2050, according to science.
Opening a path to abandoning these types of energy was the priority at this summit for the European Union and other industrialized economies, as well as for countries very vulnerable to climate change, such as many developing states.
However, until the plenary session at COP28 there was uncertainty about whether an agreement that marked the end of the era of fossil fuels would be accepted by oil-producing countries such as Saudi Arabia, which they pointed out as the main opposition.
“It is a historic and unprecedented achievement,” said the president of COP28, the Emirati Sultan Al Yaber, in the plenary session, who thanked the “hard work” of the delegations during the last two weeks and especially in the last hours in which The countries negotiated until dawn to achieve consensus.
“Many said this could not be done, but when I spoke to you at the beginning of this call, I promised you a different summit, a summit that brought together everyone: the private and public sectors, civil society, NGOs, religious leaders, young people and indigenous peoples. “Everyone came together from day one,” Al Yaber added.
“It is the beginning of the end” for fossil fuels, celebrated the director of UN Climate Change, Simon Stiell, who spoke before the different countries intervened as they requested the floor.
“The world has just taken a historic decision at COP28 to launch an irreversible and accelerated transition away from fossil fuels,” said European Commissioner for Climate Action Wopke Hoekstra after the COP28 Presidency announced that the Global Balance document had been agreed upon.
“With this, we have achieved what we had set out to do: keep 1.5 degrees within our reach and mark the beginning of the end of fossil fuels,” said the commissioner.
The Spanish Minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, representing the presidency of the EU Council that Spain currently holds, assessed that “not everything is done, but we have taken a very important step forward.”
The United States special climate envoy, John Kerry, claimed to be “marveled” with the “spirit of collaboration” between countries that he has seen at this summit, where in the midst of the conflicts that occur in the world – Ukraine, the Middle East and other challenges – “multilateralism is taking over” and “defining the common good is becoming increasingly interesting.”
Kerry, who took advantage of his intervention to announce that he will update an agreement with China to update its long-term climate strategies, highlighted that the Global Balance “sends very strong messages to the world.”
He stressed, to begin with, that the text emphasizes the need to maintain the Paris objective, of not exceeding the safe warming threshold established by science: one and a half degrees above pre-industrial levels.
He also highlighted that the agreement points the direction of tripling renewable energy, doubling energy efficiency, progressively reducing carbon without mitigation, as well as stopping and reversing deforestation and degradation by 2030, and “substantially” reducing other greenhouse gas emissions. greenhouse (beyond CO2) by 2030.
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