The first week of the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, saw a flurry of major announcements from countries aiming to take action on climate change. But the summit, which is set to end on 12 December, has also been plagued by controversy over the influence that the fossil fuel industry will have on agreements regarding the future of oil, gas and coal – the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.
Here are the biggest climate wins and flops from the summit so far.
Countries agree to put “loss and damage” fund into action, but it needs more money
The opening day of the summit saw a surprise early agreement on a “loss and damage” fund to help low-income countries pay for the growing damages caused by climate change.
Advertisement
Countries have spent the past year negotiating key details of the fund since agreeing to create it at COP27 in Egypt last year. The new compromise agreement invites any country or donor to contribute to the fund on a voluntary basis, and makes it available to all developing countries, the designation used by the United Nations. The fund would initially be hosted at the World Bank.
The agreement was hailed as a breakthrough by many observers on what they see as an essential way to compensate vulnerable, low-income countries for damages driven by a problem they did little to create. Agreement on the contentious issue has also freed up space for the negotiations to focus on other urgent questions.
However, the fact that the agreement doesn’t require high-income countries to contribute means it is unclear how much money will flow into the fund. So far, countries including the UAE, Germany and the US have collectively more than $700 million for the fund. But this is a sliver of the more than $100 billion per year that low-income countries have said is needed.
One hundred twenty countries sign on to triple renewable energy and double energy efficiency this decade, but India and China sit out the pledge
Since Saturday, at least 120 countries have joined a pledge to triple renewable energy capacity and double the rate of energy efficiency gains by 2030, in what the International Energy Agency (IEA) has called the single largest step needed to slash emissions.
“That’s a good number of countries,” says at the UK energy think tank Ember. However, while the pledge includes almost all of the rich countries as defined by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Jones points out that many emerging economies in Asia have not yet joined, most notably high emitters India and China.
Both India and China are known to support the target to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030, and both countries are building clean energy at a rapid clip. Jones says it is unclear why neither country joined the pledge, but it may be due to uncertainty around what the energy efficiency target would entail for their energy systems. It also might be because part of the pledge would involve committing to no new coal power development, when both countries are dependent on coal.
In addition to the renewables energy target, the US and 20 other countries including the UK pledged to triple nuclear energy generation by 2050. The IEA has said more nuclear power is needed to reach net zero by mid-century along with more renewables.
World’s largest oil and gas companies promise to stem methane emissions, but critics say this amounts to greenwashing without further action
Fifty oil and gas companies on Saturday to cut nearly all planet-warming methane emissions that leak from their operations by 2030, and make their operations net zero by 2050. These included oil-majors ExxonMobil and Saudi Aramco, and more than 20 other oil companies owned by national governments, which together represent more than 40 per cent of global production.
“We need the entire industry to keep 1.5°C within reach and set even stronger ambitions for decarbonisation,” said COP28 president Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, who is also the CEO of the UAE’s largest oil company ADNOC, which joined the pledge.
While environmental groups have welcomed action on methane – which is widely seen as one of the cheapest and most effective ways to slow global warming in the near term – some also efforts to reduce emissions from producing fossil fuels without plans to stop burning the fuels themselves.
“The pledge doesn’t cover a drop of the fuel they sell, which accounts for up to 95 per cent of the oil and gas industry’s contribution to the climate crisis,” says at the World Resource Institute, an environmental non-profit. “Ignoring emissions from the fossil fuels that companies sell is like a cigarette maker claiming no responsibility for the impact of their product once it leaves the factory door.”
In parallel to the announcement from fossil fuel companies at COP28, officials from the US Environmental Protection Agency announced the final version of a rule to that is expected to avoid 52 million tonnes of methane emissions over the next decade.
More countries commit to ditching fossil fuels as thousands of fossil fuel industry representatives attend the summit
The number of countries committed to phasing out fossil fuels expanded, with Spain, Kenya and Samoa joining a group of countries pledging to stop using fossil fuels called the .
“We have agreed to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030 and double energy efficiency efforts,” said , a climate minister from Spain. “None of this will be worthwhile if we do not tackle gradually phasing out fossil fuels.”
Colombia, which was already a member of the coalition, also became the second fossil-fuel-producing country to join an alliance pushing for a “fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty”. This treaty would commit countries to ending all new fossil fuel development, which the IEA has said is needed to keep global warming within Paris agreement targets.
While this adds to the ranks of countries pushing for strong language on phasing out fossil fuels in any outcome of the summit, many other countries have pushed for a weaker statement on the future of fossil fuels.
The fossil fuel industry itself also has a considerable presence at the talks. According to a count by the Kick Big Polluters Out coalition, an environmental advocacy group, . This is a larger group than delegates from any single country other than Brazil and the UAE.
COP president defends remark that “there is no science” behind fossil fuel phase-out
Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, the COP president, drew fire for previous remarks that implied he did not believe there was a scientific consensus that a phase-out of fossil fuels is necessary to meet Paris agreement targets.
“A phase-down and a phase-out of fossil fuel in my view is inevitable – it is essential – but we need to be real, serious and pragmatic about it,” Al Jaber said during a live event on 21 November, in comments first reported by The Guardian and the Centre for Climate Reporting. “There is no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says that the phase-out of fossil fuel is what’s going to achieve 1.5°C.”
He later defended his statement in a press conference, pointing out that despite steep reductions, some fossil fuels are still used in Paris-aligned energy transition scenarios. On average, these scenarios would see by mid-century, with some variation depending on the use of carbon capture and carbon dioxide removal.
However, the remarks drew criticism from groups pushing for strong language on fossil fuels, and added to concerns that Al Jaber, who leads the UAE’s largest oil company, will not deliver meaningful action on climate change at COP28.
“Al Jaber was already under intense scrutiny, and this has only intensified,” says at the International Institute for Sustainable Development. “His clear task in the second week is to restore trust in the presidency to lead the talks towards an ambitious outcome.”
