COP28: second draft text of climate deal calls for ‘transitioning away’ from fossil fuels

A proposed climate agreement released by the president of the Cop28 climate summit would, for the first time, call on nations to transition away from fossil fuels to avert the worst impacts of climate change. The latest draft text, released early on Wednesday in the United Arab Emirates, did not include a commitment to phase out or phase down fossil fuels, as many countries, civil society groups and scientists have urged. Instead, it called on countries to contribute to global efforts to transitioning 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 in keeping with the science”. The release of the proposed compromise followed a fraught 36 hours of negotiations after the summit president, Sultan Al Jaber, released a draft which was roundly rejected by rich and poor countries, who described it as “grossly insufficient”, “incoherent” and a “death certificate” for low-lying and vulnerable nations. The new proposal said countries recognised “the need for deep, rapid and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in line with 1.5C pathways”. It called for a tripling of global renewable energy capacity by 2030 and repeated previously agreed language that they would accelerate efforts “towards the phase-down of unabated coal power”. It also called for the development of “zero- and low-emission technologies” including “renewables, nuclear, abatement and removal technologies such as carbon capture and utilisation and storage, particularly in hard-to-abate sectors, and low-carbon hydrogen production”. The draft is meant to reflect the consensus view of nearly 200 countries gathered at the conference in Dubai, where scores of governments have insisted on strong language to signal an eventual end to the fossil fuel era against protests from Saudi Arabia and members of the oil producing group OPEC. Country representatives have been called to what the Cop28 presidency hopes is a final meeting later Wednesday morning, where they could pass the deal and end two weeks of tough negotiations that have run a day into overtime. Deals struck at UN climate summits must be passed by consensus, at which point individual countries are responsible for delivering on the agreements through national policies and investments. If the language about transitioning away from fossil fuels was adopted it would mark the first time in three decades of COP climate summits that nations agreed on a concerted move away from oil, gas and coal – products that now account for about 80% of global energy. Scientists say fossil fuels are by far the largest source of the greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change. Sultan Al Jaber, president of the talks on behalf of the United Arab Emirates, had earlier engaged in an intense round of shuttle diplomacy throughout Tuesday and had meetings with heads of delegation singly and in groups planned until 3am on Wednesday. Climate justice advocates have told the Guardian that rich countries have failed to show the leadership necessary to solve the climate crisis, and many are too mired in their own hypocrisy over fossil fuels to break the impasse at Cop28, Saudi Arabia and a few allied countries were in a small minority that had publicly raised strong objections to the inclusion of any reference to reducing the production and consumption of fossil fuels in the text of a potential deal. Many developed countries have publicly pushed hard for a phase-out of coal, oil and gas – but with caveats such as “unabated” or just coal, in the case of the US. In contrast, many in the developing world – despite their desire to see global temperatures limited to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels – say any commitment to phasing out fossil fuels must be “fair, funded, and fast”, with the rich polluting countries transitioning first.