Deal for ‘transition away’ from fossil fuels at COP28

DUBAI: Negotiators at United Nations COP28 climate talks agreed on Wednesday that the world must transition away from planet-warming fossil fuels, a significant step toward shifting how the world is powered but one filled with questions about how soon and who will pay for the transition.

COP28 president Sultan al-Jaber gaveled through the text at a plenary session in Dubai after more than two weeks of discussions that saw nations try and figure out a way for the world to stay in line with limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times.

Countries were split between those wanting strong language on a phase-out of fossil fuels and others who wanted some way to continue burning oil, gas and coal.

The new compromise had been floated early Wednesday after a global rallying cry stronger than proposed days earlier, but with loopholes that upset critics.

The new proposal 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”.

That transition would be in a way that gets the world to net zero greenhouse gas emissions in 2050 and follows the dictates of climate science.

It projects a world peaking its ever-growing carbon pollution by 2025 to reach its agreed-upon threshold but gives wiggle room to nations like China to peak later.

“The world is burning, we need to act now,” said Ireland Environment Minister Eamon Ryan.