The COP28 climate talks began with a new fund to address the increasingly severe losses and damage vulnerable countries face from climate impacts and concluded with the first international agreement to tackle climate change’s main driver: fossil fuels.

Those bookends to the Dubai summit start to tackle the world’s core climate challenges: quickly transforming key systems to dramatically cut emissions and responding to the substantial impacts already occurring.

The main stage for much of this year’s COP was the first-ever Global Stocktake, the Paris Agreement’s process to assess progress every five years and mobilize stronger climate action. The Global Stocktake outcome in Dubai, dubbed the UAE Consensus, covered the full scope of climate issues, sending critical signals for energy, transport and nature, and providing direction for the next round of national climate commitments (NDCs) due in 2025.

The decision to transition away from “fossil fuels" was the first time the term appeared in a COP’s formal outcome since UN climate negotiations began 30 years ago. Despite immense pressure from oil and gas interests, key country negotiators stood their ground and landed a deal that marks the beginning of the end of the fossil fuel era — a fitting close to the hottest year on record.

There was also significant progress outside the formal climate negotiations — including new commitments to reduce methane emissions, create more sustainable food systems, protect forests and more.

But it wasn’t all good news. The lead negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), a group of 39 nations, said that while the agreement has many good elements, the deal’s support for carbon capture technology and other items are concerning. She said the course correction needed to avert the climate crisis “has not yet been secured.”

And there was limited progress in other areas of the negotiations. Adaptation targets lacked detail. Finance got short shrift on many fronts; it remains unclear how the world will pay for the massive clean energy transition it’s now committed to. Next year’s climate summit in Azerbaijan (COP29) needs to offer breakthroughs on thorny and fundamental questions about finance.

Below, we explore COP28’s outcomes in greater depth and explain where the world needs to go on key issues:

Fossil Fuels & Clean Energy
Loss & Damage
Adaptation
Climate Finance
National Climate Plans (NDCs)
Food
Cities
Methane
Forests & Land Use
A Rapid Shift from Fossil Fuels to Clean Energy
What happened?
The UAE Consensus calls for the world to “transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade, so as to achieve net zero by 2050.” This signifies both a rapid near-term shift away from fossil fuels and a long-term direction of travel to a zero-carbon future.

The outcome also included agreement to triple the world’s renewable energy capacity and double its energy efficiency by 2030, goals also reflecting a pledge made by 130 countries at the start of COP. In addition, the COP decision called on countries to accelerate emissions reductions from road transport through a variety of pathways — not only zero-emissions vehicles, but also shifts to public transport and safe cycling infrastructure.

The outcome calls for this transition to be just and equitable, and states that differing national circumstances must be taken into account. This recognition serves as an essential foundation for national policymaking as countries determine how they will contribute to the global energy transition and ensure no one in their country is left behind. But the overarching message is that every nation must be part of the transition.

But not all outcomes were positive. While renewables are the cheapest energy option for most people, they require more investment at the beginning of the project than other technologies, and are impacted by interest rates and misaligned policies that often put wind and solar out of reach for developing countries. The COP28 outcome does not tackle these financial challenges, an oversight that must be addressed at the next UN climate summit.

The final outcome also leaves oil- and gas-producing countries and fossil fuel interests with loopholes. For instance, the deal lends support to “transitional fuels,” which is widely understood to be a reference to natural gas, the third-most carbon-intensive method of generating electricity. And the outcome fails to recognize the limitations of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology (though it does say the technology should be focused particularly in hard-to-abate sectors). By all estimates, CCS can only play a very small role in our fight against climate change — for instance, the IEA net-zero scenario shows CCS capturing just 1 of 15 gigatons of carbon emissions reductions needed from the energy sector by 2030. Natural gas and carbon capture technology must not be used as excuses to slow the clean energy transition.

Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia unveiled a charter that committed participating companies to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, but only for their own operations. The pledge doesn’t cover a drop of the fuel oil and gas companies sell, which accounts for up to 95% of the industry’s contribution to the climate crisis. The world won’t meet its climate goals unless governments require the oil and gas industry to address both its production and use of the fuels they make, while governments must also ensure that demand for those fuels is cut dramatically.

What’s next?
To turn decisions into reality, countries now need to incorporate strong targets into their next round of NDCs, due in 2025. Another critical test is whether far more finance is mobilized for developing countries to help make the energy transition possible.

Related links
COP28 declaration on climate and health
COP28: Loss and damage – the vital arguments
Climate, conflict, and COP28: The burden on unstable regions
COP28: Suggested commitments for addressing gender gaps in disaster risk reduction

READ further from the source above