Reacting to the adoption of the outcome document, UN chief António Guterres said that mention of the world’s leading contributor to climate change comes after many years in which the discussion of this issue was blocked.

He stressed that the era of fossil fuels must end with justice and equity.

“To those who opposed a clear reference to a phaseout of fossil fuels in the COP28 text, I want to say that a fossil fuel phase out is inevitable whether they like it or not.  Let’s hope it doesn’t come too late”, he added.

The latest edition of the annual UN climate conference has been running in Dubai, the largest city in the United Arab Emirates, since 30 November. 

COP28 had been scheduled to close on Tuesday, but intense overnight negotiations over whether the outcome would include a call to “phasedown” or “phaseout” planet heating fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal – the main sticking point which pit activists, and climate-vulnerable countries against some larger nations – forced the conference into overtime.

‘The science is clear’

In his statement, Mr. Guterres said the science is clear in that limiting global heating to 1.5°C, one of the keystone targets set in the landmark 2015 the Paris Agreement, “will be impossible without the phase out of all fossil fuels”, and this is being recognized by a growing and diverse coalition of countries.

The negotiators at COP28 also agreed on commitments to triple renewables capacity and double energy efficiency by 2030 and made progress in relation to adaptation and finance.

Other progress was also made in relation to adaptation and finance, including – including the operationalization of the Loss and Damage Fund, even though financial commitments are very limited, according to the Secretary-General.

But the UN chief stressed that much more is needed to deliver climate justice to those on the frontlines of the crisis.

“Many vulnerable countries are drowning in debt and at risk of drowning in rising seas. It is time for a surge in finance, including for adaptation, loss and damage and reform of the international financial architecture.”

He said the world cannot afford “delays, indecision, or half measures” and insisted that “multilateralism remains humanity’s best hope.”

“It is essential to come together around real, practical and meaningful climate solutions that match the scale of the climate crisis.”

‘A lifeline, not a finish line’

UN climate chief Simon Stiell said, “genuine strides forward” were made at COP28, but the initiatives announced in Dubai are “a climate action lifeline, not a finish line.”

Mr. Stiel said the Global Stocktake – which aims to help nations align their national climate plans with the Paris Agreement – had clearly revealed that progress is not fast enough, but it is “undeniably” gathering pace.

Still, the current trajectory is just under three degrees of global warming equating “mass human suffering”, according to the climate chief, which is why COP28 “needed to move the needle further”.

Speaking to reporters outside the main hall, the Mr. Stiell said COP28 needed to signal a hard stop to humanity’s core climate problem – “fossil fuels and their planet burning pollution”.

“While we didn’t fully turn the page on the fossil fuel here in Dubai, this is clearly the beginning of the end”.

“This agreement is an ambitious floor, not a ceiling. So, the crucial years ahead must keep ramping up ambition and climate action”.

Here are some of the other highlights from COP28 and a snapshot of what happens next:

What else happened at COP28?

1. The loss and damage fund designed to support climate-vulnerable developing countries was brought to life on the first day of the COP. Countries have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars so far for the fund;
2. Commitments of worth $3.5 billion to replenish the resources of the Green Climate Fund;
3. New announcements totaling over $150 million for the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDC) and Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF)
4. An increase of $9 billion annually by the World Bank to finance climate-related projects (2024 and 2025);
5. Nearly 120 countries backed COP28 UAE Climate and Health Declaration to accelerate actions to protect people’s health from growing climate impacts;
6. Over 130 countries have signed up to COP28 UAE Declaration on Agriculture, Food, and Climate to support food security while combatting climate change;
7. Global Cooling Pledge has been endorsed by 66 countries to reduce cooling related emissions by 68% from today.

What’s next?

• The next round of national climate action plans – or Nationally Determined Contributions – is due in 2025, when countries are expected to have seriously boosted their actions and commitments.
   
• Azerbaijan was announced as the official host COP29 – from November 11 to 22 next year – after receiving the backing of Eastern European states following the withdrawal by Armenia of its own bid.
   
• Brazil has offered to host COP30 in the Amazon in 2025. 

Mixed reactions

Despite multiple rounds of applause inside the plenary, not all delegations were pleased with the outcome of the climate talks. Civil society representatives and climate activists, as well as delegations from small island developing countries were visibly unhappy with the outcome.

Anne Rasmussen, the Samoan representative and lead negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), pointed out that the decision was gavelled during their absence in the plenary room as their group was still coordinating its response to the text.

She lamented that they cannot “afford to return to their islands with the message that this process has failed us.” 

Underlining the importance of the Global Stocktake process, she said, “this first GST is of particular significance. It is the only GST that matters for ensuring that we can still limit global warming to 1.5C.” 

Ms. Rasmussen bemoaned the lack of “course correction” and expressed disappointment over “incremental advancement over business as usual, when what we really needed was an “exponential step-change in our actions and support.” 

UNFCCC/Kiara Worth

Just after the release of the final document, Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at Climate Action Network International told UN News: “After decades of evasion, COP28 finally cast a glaring spotlight on the real culprits of the climate crisis: fossil fuels. A long-overdue direction to move away from coal, oil, and gas has been set.”

“But the resolution is marred by loopholes that offer the fossil fuel industry numerous escape routes, relying on unproven, unsafe technologies.

Mr. Singh also pointed to what he saw as “hypocrisy of wealthy nations… as they continue to expand fossil fuel operations massively while merely paying lip service to the green transition.”

Developing countries still dependent on fossil fuels are, he said, left without robust guarantees for adequate financial support in their “urgent and equitable transition to renewable energy.”

“While this COP recognized the immense financial shortfall in tackling climate impacts, the final outcomes fall disappointingly short of compelling wealthy nations to fulfill their financial responsibilities,” he added.

The 21-page text, prepared by the COP28 presidency, United Arab Emirates, makes no mention of fossil fuel ‘phasedown’ or ‘phaseout’, which UN Secretary-General António Guterres said earlier on Monday was one of the keys to the conference’s success and which many nations have demanded. 

Rather, the draft text called for countries to reduce “consumption and production of fossil fuels, in a just, orderly and equitable manner.”

The United States, European Union countries, and a group of small island developing States joined a chorus of civil society groups denouncing the draft as not going far enough to curb global warming.

This is not the final text though, and negotiations on compromise language are expected to continue all day Tuesday, the scheduled closing day for COP28.

Expect a waiting game as delegates wrangle over a new text that’s  more than a list of things countries could do.

Activists and some countries are demanding stronger language that better reflects the true urgency of tackling the climate crisis.

Here’s a look at some of the (largely voluntary) measures that made it into the current draft and what’s out:

What’s in:

1. Tripling global capacity of renewable energy by 2030 [the US and China pledged to work together towards this goal in a deal struck between the world’s two biggest emitters in the run-up to COP28];
2. The rapid phasedown of “unabated coal” and curtailing the number of new licenses; 
3. Zero and low emissions technologies, including removal technologies such as carbon capture, and utilization and storage;
4. Climate finance, but with a ‘weak language’; and 
5. Targets on adaptation with insufficient financial commitments, or ‘without a work programme’ to measure it.

 What’s out:

1. The phaseout of fossil fuels;
2. The words “oil” and “natural gas” do not appear;
3. Strong obligations for rich countries; and
4. Equity in adaptation, needed for equitable support from rich countries.

‘Gone completely’

Harjeet Singh, Head of Global Political Strategy at Climate Action Network International, told UN News that he was expecting the new text to be “much stronger, but the language on phaseout of fossil fuels is now completely gone … As civil society we reject the text.”

“There will be negotiation on this text,” continued Mr. Singh. “Let’s see how countries respond.”

Mr. Singh said that over the two weeks the conference had been meeting in the UAE, there had “clearly been pressure from the outside … coming from the fossil fuel industry. We have seen OPEC issuing a letter; how [oil-producing countries] are completely against any language on fossil fuel phaseout; how rich countries are only grandstanding.

“It’s going to be a long night,” he said.

Toeolesulusulu Cedric Schuster, Samoa’s Minister of Natural Resources and Environment and the chair of the Alliance of Small Island States told UN News: “The [text] does not reflect what we came here for, especially the language on phaseout of fossil fuel. It doesn’t reflect the 1.5 degree [goal] that we need to stay alive.”

Blinking back tears, Sharon-Mona Ainuu told UN News that after having come so far and spending so much money to get to Dubai “money we don’t have” she was heartbroken to see that the text “is so against what we believe in” and doesn’t reflect the position of peoples from the South Pacific.

“We are the most vulnerable people,” said Ms. Ainuu, who is the Minister of Natural Resources of the small island nation of Niue. 

“Our islands are submerged; our islands are sinking… Others must think of us. It’s a moral obligation as humans to do good for others.”

As COP28 entered its final 48 hours, the UN chief delivered a clear message to government negotiators: “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.” 

‘The clock is ticking’

Negotiators are engaged in intense negotiations to hammer out a deal on key agenda items including the future of the use of fossil fuels, ramping up renewable energy, building resilience to climate change and ensuring financial support for vulnerable countries.

Speaking to reporters today, Mr. Guterres warned of humanity’s race against time as our planet is “minutes to midnight” for the 1.5 degree limit, referring to one of the keystone global warming targets set by the 2015 Paris Agreement. “And the clock keeps ticking.”

And yet, with COP28 so close to the finish line, there is still a “gap that needs to be bridged, said the Secretary-General.

Against this backdrop, he noted that “now is the time for maximum ambition and maximum flexibility. Ministers and negotiators must move beyond arbitrary red lines, entrenched positions and blocking tactics,” he said.

Urging countries to go into “overdrive to negotiate in good faith and rise to the challenge”, the Secretary-General also cautioned that any “compromise for solutions”, must not come at the cost of “compromising on the science or on the need for the highest ambition.”

He underscored that in a “fractured and divided world, COP28 can show that multilateralism remains our best hope to tackle global challenges.”

‘How high is our ambition’

Speaking to reporters just ahead of the Secretary-General, UN climate chief Simon Stiell said negotiations on an outcome document have a chance to begin a new chapter that delivers for people and planet.

He underscored the importance of finance as “the bedrock to scale-up climate action on all fronts”.Mr. Stiell said negotiations in Dubai have now boiled down to two issues:

1. “How high is our ambition on mitigation”; and
2. “Are we willing to back this transition with the proper means of support to deliver it?”

He stressed that the highest levels of ambition are possible on both, “but if we reduce on one, we reduce our ability to get either.”

To reach a meaningful deal, the many “unnecessary tactical blockades” seen along the COP28 journey must be removed, and “incrementalism” must be rejected, according to the climate chief.

He reminded negotiators that the world is watching and “there is nowhere to hide.”

“One thing is for certain: ‘I win – you lose’ is a recipe for collective failure. Ultimately it is 8 billion people’s security that is at stake”.

Global Stocktake

Following the landmark Paris COP, Dubai is the first time that a UN climate summit surveys progress towards achieving the goals agreed in 2015.

This so-named Global Stocktake is still being assessed and could pave the way to ambitious national climate action plans, or NDC’s that countries are due to submit in 2025.

Mr. Guterres has called for countries to step up their efforts to ensure maximum ambition on two fronts, namely ambition on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and on delivering climate justice.

On Monday he stressed that the Global Stocktake must recognize the “need to phase out all fossil fuels on a time-frame consistent with the 1.5-degree limit – and to accelerate a just, equitable and orderly energy transition for all.”

Energy transformation

In his encounter with the press at Expo City, the Secretary-General focused on key action points essential to raise ambition and ramp up climate action on the energy transition front:

1. A tripling of renewable power capacity, a doubling of energy efficiency and a phaseout of fossil fuel;
2. Support, training and social protection for those who may be negatively impacted; and
3. Consideration of needs of developing countries dependent on the production of fossil fuels.

He said that “timelines and targets might be different for countries at different levels of development”, but it should be in line with “achieving global net-zero by 2050 and preserving the 1.5-degree goal.”

Climate justice

Mr. Guterres recalled that COP28 began with two encouraging steps: an agreement to operationalize the Loss and Damage Fund to help vulnerable countries cope with the impacts of climate change, and the replenishment of the Green Climate Fund.

“It is a start, but much more is needed,” he said. 

Given the challenges ahead of debt-ridden developing countries, the UN chief pushed for “all commitments made by developed countries on finance and adaptation to be met,” and in addition, “far more adaptation ambition will be needed.”

“COP28 must send clear signals that governments have grasped the scale of the adaptation challenge, and that it is a priority not just for developing countries, but the entire world,” he added.

New adaptation framework

Mr. Guterres welcomed the “emerging consensus for a new framework on adaptation” but cautioned that a “framework without the means of implementation is like a car without wheels.”

“The doubling of adaptation finance to $40 billion dollars by 2025 must be an initial step towards allocating at least half of all climate finance towards adaptation,” noted the Secretary-General.

Looking ahead, he flagged the next two years as vital for establishing a new global climate finance goal beyond 2025, and for governments to prepare new national climate action plans, fully aligned with the 1.5-degree limit.

“We can’t keep kicking the can down the road. We are out of road – and almost out of time,” he said, urging negotiators to rise to the scale and urgency of the climate challenge.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has identified 10 priority areas – such as livestock, soil and water, crops, diets and fisheries – where following the roadmap can help push the world closer to achieving ‘Zero Hunger’, the second of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 

The aim: to transform agrifood systems – which encompass how the food we eat is farmed or raised, how it is transported, and how and where we dispose of it – growing harvesting from net emitters to into a carbon sink by 2050, capturing 1.5 gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions annually.

The goal: To help to eliminate world hunger without driving the planet past the 1.5 degree limit for global warming as set by the Paris Agreement. 

On the side lines of the UN climate conference in Dubai (COP28), UN News spoke to David Laborde, Director of the Agrifood Economics Division at FAO, who said that the roadmap is designed to avoid “doomism” and provides avenues to act today in a way that can benefit all now and in the future. 

“We need policymakers to act. We need the civil society to be mobilized and the private sector to understand that making better choices today means making investments more sustainable and more profitable for tomorrow.”

While 120 action points may seem like a great deal, Mr. Laborde stressed that the end goal is to achieve “a system transformation where everyone has to play a role”.

© FAO/Alessandro Penso

FAO launches global roadmap process to eradicate hunger within 1.5°C limits

‘A good starting point’

Meanwhile, FAO’s chief economist, Maximo Torero, told UN News that the goal of this roadmap is to transform agrifood systems through accelerated climate actions to “help achieve food security and nutrition for all, today and tomorrow.”

With around 738 million chronically malnourished people around the world, Mr. Torero said food must be part of the discussion on climate and must attract climate investments, which currently sit at a meagre four percent.

According to a report released in connection to the roadmap, FAO said climate finance flowing to agrifood systems is strikingly low and continues to diminish compared to global climate finance flows, at a time when this type of financing is urgently needed.

He said the work being done at COP28 is “a good starting point”, and this roadmap can provide guidance for implementing the Emirates Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action, which was launched at the high-level opening of the conference. 

Accelerating implementation

The FAO initiative was launched on the day dedicated to food, agriculture and water at Dubai’s Expo City, where ministers and other senior officials gathered to discuss pathways towards implementing the Emirates Declaration, now signed by over 150 member States. 

In a message to the high-level event, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said the Declaration is a “powerful statement of political will to drive the transitions we need” as the deadline to achieve the 2030 Agenda fast approaches. 

“With seven years remaining to achieve our sustainable development and climate goals, we need to urgently strengthen our collective efforts using food systems as a lever to accelerate implementation.”

Ms. Mohammed added that any path to fully realizing the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement must include agriculture and food systems, from which over one third of emissions emanate.  

A ‘seaweed revolution’

One innovative solution to some of the most pressing global challenges humanity is facing today can be found in seaweed, “the greatest untapped resource we have on the planet”.

That’s according to Vincent Doumeizel, Senior Advisor on Oceans to the UN Global Compact, who told the UN News team at COP28 that he was leading the “seaweed revolution” which could help tackle not only the climate crisis, but also the food security and social crises. 

Mr. Doumeizel highlighted the enormous ability of seaweed to absorb carbon and be a sustainable substitute for plastics, making it a great tool for climate mitigations and biodiversity restoration. 

“Seaweed can grow very fast – up to 40 centimetres a day to reach 60 meters high. So, they are a real forest, and they absorb more carbon than the Amazon Forest.”

UN News / Ezzat El-Ferri

The Oceans expert said outdated food systems are among the biggest contributors to climate change, biodiversity loss, water scarcity, soil depletion and social injustice, “with a massive number of modern slave active in these food systems”.

He said seaweed farming in East Africa has already proven its ability to create jobs and empower women in East Africa where “80 percent of the revenues go to women”. 

Mr. Doumeizel noted that despite being nutrient and protein-packed, almost all the very little seaweed we eat today is gathered on the beaches.

He stressed the need to “change the narrative” of fear and doom being presented to the future generations and to “feed them hope and optimism”. 

“I believe that if we learn to cultivate the ocean, we will be remembered as the first generation on the planet that will be able to feed the entire population while mitigating climate change, while restoring biodiversity and alleviating poverty. We can be remembered as such, but it needs to be altogether”.

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With negotiations on curbing global warming and the future of fossil fuels generating the most buzz as the latest UN climate conference heads towards the finish line – COP28 is scheduled to wrap up next Tuesday – young people and children grabbed the spotlight today.

In the lead-up to the conference, the UN released a string of dire reports confirming that our planet is at a tipping point. The latest survey from the UN weather agency, WMO, said that greenhouse gasses have “turbo-charged a dramatic acceleration in ice melt and sea level rise.”

The world is home to 1.8 billion young people between the ages of 10 to 24 – the largest youth generation in history. They are increasingly vocal and aware of the risks posed by the climate crisis, and they took the center stage today the Al-Waha theater in Dubai’s Expo City.

Movement for change

At a youth dialogue event, Ameila Turk of YOUNGO – a global network of children and youth activists – outlined the global youth statement delivered to delegates at COP28, a policy document prepared with over 750,000 inputs received from over 150 countries.

She described it as a part of climate movement.

“While we might not necessarily have the ability to bring everybody to a COP itself, the global statement is an excellent example of how we are able to show… what we really care about, and to show the audience why we are here.”

Dr. Mashkur Isa of YOUNGO asked attendees under the age of 35 to raise their hands and most hands in the packed auditorium went up.

He noted that it was unfortunate that such a high level of youth representation was mostly missing in the day-to-day work of COP28, as well as previous UN climate conferences.

“Despite our continuous calls for ambitious climate action our children and youth are absent from climate discussions, commitments and policymaking. Parties must protect our interests by immediately placing the voices of children and youth at the center of all levels of climate change decision-making,” he stated.

Action for climate empowerment 

YOUNGO member Bhumi Sharma, moderator of the youth climate dialogue, said that ensuring finance for the Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) agenda is crucial.

ACE, which echoes one of the objectives of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement aims to empower all members of society to engage in climate action through education and public awareness, training, public participation, public access to information, and international cooperation.

“There has been a chronic absence of funds and despite efforts, developed countries are not willing to talk about it,” she added.

Speaking to UN News, she underscored that activism for climate action comes from within, “and while we cannot force anyone to care about something they don’t,” her hope is that people take the climate crisis seriously.

‘The climate crisis is an education crisis’

According to UNICEF analysis released earlier this year, weather-related disasters caused the internal displacement of 43.1 million children in 44 countries over a six-year period – approximately 20,000 children a day.

Earlier on Friday, UN News spoke to Yasmine Sherif, Executive Director of Education Cannot Wait, the UN global fund for education in emergencies, which recently issued an appeal for $150 million to scale up efforts in response to the climate crisis.

“Climate change has proven to be one of the largest causes for displacement after conflict,” she said, adding that displacement affects the education of children and youth, and eventually their futures.

A new Education Cannot Wait survey shows that the education of 62 million children and adolescents has been disrupted as an immediate and direct consequence of climate change.

UN News/Sachin Gaur

Indeed, nearly 29,000 schools were damaged or destroyed due to flooding in Pakistan, and drought is impacting young lives in Somalia and the Horn of Africa.

“It’s important not to separate climate change from the impact it has on basic services. These are not two different agendas,” Ms. Sherif explained. “The climate crisis is an education crisis.”

More funding

At COP28, Education Cannot Wait is pushing for more progress and to place education at the center of the climate action agenda. 

“Without putting investment in education, all the billions we are investing is a lost money,” said Ms. Sherif.

She said that even a small investment in education can go a long way in ensuring that the new generation keeps going to school and becomes the engineers, the scientists, the teachers who continue on the path towards saving the mother Earth.

“Don’t tell me that there are no resources. If we took 5 per cent of military expenditures and move them towards a education and to address climate crisis… We would have $100 billion a year to address climate change. So, the message is that you need to start reprioritizing,” she emphasized.

Long overdue

Carmen Burbano from the World Food Programme (WFP) said that it was “about time” the link between education, youth and climate action was made in a dedicated theme at a UN climate conference.

The Director of WFP’s School Feeding Unit, M. Burbano, spoke to UN News on the sidelines of an event which focused on reimagining school meals for the health of the planet and children.

As the “largest social assistance programme in the world, we are changing what a third of the population in many of the countries is eating, and that directly impact climate goals,” she said.

She underscored that switching to cleaner energy sources in cooking these meals can also have an impact on preventing deforestation and even move communities around schools towards the use of more renewable energies.

Ms. Burbano said education, food systems and climate action “really need to come together in packages of solutions” and she hoped that this would remain a feature of future climate conferences. 

She also welcomed the inclusion of school meals in the Food Systems Declaration made at COP28 as one of the solutions.

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On Wednesday, UN climate chief Simon Stiell told a press conference that the text is “a grab bag of wish lists and heavy on posturing.” He added: “All governments must give their negotiators clear marching orders. We need highest ambition, not point scoring or lowest common denominator politics.”

UN chief António Guterres has said the Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which facilitates these annual conferences, “must commit countries to triple renewables capacity, double energy efficiency, and bring clean energy to all, by 2030.”

In Dubai last week, Mr. Guterres reiterated calls for a complete phase out of fossil fuels to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius – while ensuring that the transition is equitable and just.

As the delegates head into the home stretch – COP28 is expected to close next Tuesday, 12 December – here’s a snapshot of what’s happened so far and what’s ahead.

COP28 at the halfway mark

Key pledges and declarations made:

• The loss and damage fund designed to support climate-vulnerable developing countries was brought to life on the first day of the COP 
• Countries have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars so far for the fund 
• A pledge to shore up global health care systems to withstand the worsening impacts of climate change 
• A pledge to curb cooling-related emissions was joined by nearly 60 countries

Most discussed topics:

1. Phasing out or reducing the use of fossil fuels
2. Building resilience to climate impacts
3. Financial support for vulnerable countries coping with a climate catastrophe

Major reports launched:

Among the major reports launched in the first half of COP28, two sobering science-based surveys from the UN weather agency, WMO, opened and closed the week.

• The first WMO report warned that the world is heating up at pace that could signal “planetary collapse” if drastic and immediate action isn’t taken to curb greenhouse gas emissions
• The second WMO report, launched on Tuesday confirmed 2011-2030 was the warmest decade ever recorded with greenhouse gas emissions “turbo charging” climate change and imperiling our Polar ice caps and mountainous regions

What’s coming up:

Now all eyes are on countries’ ability to use the conclusions of the global stocktake – an in-depth look at how far the world has come since adopting the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement and what’s to be done next – as a springboard towards more ambitious climate action plans.

COP28 is expected to wrap up its work on Tuesday and a decision adopted by the parties could emerge as the most consequential outcome following the 2015 Paris conference.

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