Cop28: second draft text of climate deal calls for ‘transitioning away’ from fossil fuels

A new draft climate agreement released at the Cop28 climate summit in the United Arab Emirates has for the first time explicitly called on nations to transition away from fossil fuels to avert the worst impacts of the climate crisis.

But the latest proposed text, released by the Cop president, Sultan Al Jaber, early on Wednesday, did not include an explicit 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 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.

Norway’s minister for climate and the environment, Espen Barth Eide, said the new draft was the first time that the world had united around “such a clear text on the need to transition away from fossil fuels”. “It has been the elephant in the room, at last we address it head on,” he said.

Stephen Cornelius, WWF’s deputy global climate and energy lead, said the new draft was a “sorely needed improvement from the last version, which rightly caused outrage”, but should have gone further. “The language on fossil fuels is much improved, but still falls short of calling for the full phase out of coal, oil and gas,” he said.

Rachel Cleetus, policy director and a lead economist for the climate and energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists the text sent a strong signal that world leaders recognised the need for a sharp turn away from fossil fuels towards clean energy in this decade, aligned with scientific warnings.

“The finance and equity provisions, however, are seriously insufficient and must be improved in the time ahead in order to ensure low- and middle-income countries can transition to clean energy and close the energy poverty gap,” she said.

Melanie Robinson, global climate program director at the World Resources Institute, said: “This text makes a clear call for the world to transition away from fossil fuels and accelerate action this decade. This would dramatically move the needle in the fight against climate change and overcome immense pressure from oil and gas interests.”

But Bill Hare, chief executive of Climate Analytics, said there were major problems with the text, and it looked like a “major victory for the oil and gas producing countries and fossil fuel exporters”. He said it included no commitment to peak global emissions by 2025, as was necessary, and included language “opens the door to false solutions”.

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.