Post: What happened at COP28?

What happened at COP28?

The 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP28, was the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference. During the 13-day summit (November 30 to December 12) heads of State, ministers and negotiators, along with climate activists, mayors, civil society representatives and CEOs, focussed discussions on 3 main pillars: industrial decarbonisation; accelerating the just green energy transition; and innovation for climate action.

Global Stocktake

When 193 countries signed on to the Paris Agreement, they committed to three goals: 1) reduce emissions enough to hold global temperature rise to “well below 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F)” above pre-industrial levels, and ideally 1.5 degrees C; 2) build communities’ resilience to the impacts of climate change; and 3) align the world’s financial flows with low-carbon, climate-resilient development. They also agreed to assess their progress toward these goals every five years (beginning in 2023) and strengthen their action in response, a process known as the “Global Stocktake.”

At COP28, the first-ever “Global Stocktake,” assessing the world’s collective progress toward addressing the climate crisis was concluded.

The Global Stocktake synthesis report released in September 2023 revealed that the world is far off track from its goal of holding global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) to avoid some of the most disastrous impacts of climate change. The stocktake found that implementation of the Paris Agreement is lacking across all areas and calls for a systems transformation, which follows a whole-society and whole-economy approach that mainstreams climate resilience and development aligned with low greenhouse gas emissions. The stocktake also points to a growing gap between the needs of developing countries and the support provided and mobilised for them, and calls for the unlocking and redeployment of trillions of dollars towards climate action and climate-resilient development.

On 8 December the new Global Stocktake draft text was published, which will inform the next round of climate action plans under the Paris Agreement (nationally determined contributions, or NDCs) to be put forward by 2025.

Renewables and efficiency pledge

Australia, Canada, Japan, Ireland, the UK and the USA were among the 118 countries to sign a pledge to treble renewables to 11TW by 2030. The Global Renewables and Energy Efficiency Pledge was signed on 2 December. Signatory countries recognised that to maintain the collective goal of the Paris Agreement, accelerating the pace renewables are deployed needs to be increased between now and 2030.

The statement from the signing countries also recognises the need to strengthen collaboration on renewables and energy efficiency by co-operating on resilient value chains and technology; expanding financial support to emerging markets to deploy renewables or accelerating cross-border grid interconnections among others.

In response to the Global Pledge, the European Union announced it would invest €2.3 billion (£1.8 billion) to support the energy transition in neighbouring countries and across the globe. The UK also joined France, Canada, Japan and the USA in endorsing a global ambition to treble civil nuclear power capacity between 2020 and 2050.

Transitioning away

COP27 ended with generic provisions on the need to boost “low-emission energy” and did little to define the future of fossil fuels. Earlier this year, however, G7 leaders stated their objective to rely predominantly on renewables by 2035. They pledged to intensify efforts to phase-out unabated coal power generation (where power plants generate coal without equipment for emission control such as carbon capture or storage technologies).

As COP28 entered its final 48 hours on 11 December, UN Secretary-General António Guterres delivered a clear message: “We must conclude the conference with an ambitious outcome that demonstrates decisive action and a credible plan to keep 1.5-degree goal alive, protecting those on the frontlines of the climate crisis.” A coalition of more than 80 countries including the USA, the EU and small island nations pushed for an agreement that includes language to “phase out” fossil fuels.

On 13 December a deal was approved that would, for the first time, push nations to transition away from fossil fuels to avert the worst effects of climate change. It came hours after the presidency released the final draft of a summit agreement. The UAE Consensus calls for “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner … so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science.” It also calls for a tripling of renewable energy capacity globally by 2030, speeding up efforts to reduce coal use, and accelerating technologies such as carbon capture and storage that can clean up hard-to-decarbonise industries.

COP28 president Sultan al-Jaber hailed the deal, which was approved by almost 200 countries, as an “historic package” of measures which offered a “robust plan” to keep the target of 1.5C within reach.“ US climate envoy John Kerry said: “This document sends very strong messages to the world.” UK climate minister Graham Stuart said: “this is the beginning of the end of the fossil fuel era […] this outcome is something we can genuinely celebrate.” Wopke Hoekstra, EU climate chief, told the meeting that “humanity has finally done what is long overdue. Thirty years we’ve spent to arrive at the beginning of the end of fossil fuels.” Mary Robinson, chair of the Elders and former president of Ireland said “if 1.5C is our north star, and science our compass, we must swiftly phase out all fossil fuels to chart a course towards a liveable future.

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