Latest Cop28 draft drops after day of silence and calls for ‘transition away’ from fossil fuels

The latest draft of the Cop28 agreement was released early on Wednesday morning after more than 24 hours of silence while negotiators wrangled over the future of fossil fuels.

The new text directly addresses fossil fuels, a central demand at this year’s global climate summit, and calls on parties to “transition away” from their use “in this critical decade”.

However the phrase “phase out” or “phase down” of fossil fuels was not reintroduced despite being called for by more than 100 countries, and being options in an earlier text. Oil-rich nations had strongly opposed this call.

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The draft will not become final until consensus is reached among all countries. However this text is expected to be close to the final version that goes to a vote.

The final plenary session to gavel through the decision is expected to begin at 10.30am local time.

Climate advocates said that it was positive that fossil fuels had been “brought to the table” for the first time in a Cop28 agreement.

“This text makes a clear call for the world to transition away from fossil fuels and accelerate action this decade,” said Melanie Robinson, Global Climate Program Director, World Resources Institute.

“This would dramatically move the needle in the fight against climate change and overcome immense pressure from oil and gas interests.”

Others said it did not go far enough. Jean Su, acting director of Center for Biological Diversity, said there were “cavernous holes”, when climate science, along with the futures of small island states and other vulnerable countries, were taken into consideration.

There were particular concerns about the role of “transitional fuels” and whether that would mean the continued use of natural gas, a fossil fuel. The so-called “Global Stocktake” draft in Dubai repeats a call to “accelerate efforts towards the phase down of unabated coal power” that was made in the Cop26 Glasgow Agreement two years ago.

Among other key elements of the text are: - “Transitioning away from fossil fuels” in this decade, in a “just, orderly and equitable manner” keeping the net zero goals of 2050 in mind; - Tripling renewable energy capacity globally by 2030; - “Phasing down unabated coal”; - “Accelerating zero and low emissions technologies” including nuclear, and carbon removal technologies; - Phasing out of “inefficient” fossil fuel subsidies as soon as possible that do not address energy poverty or help developing countries transition to clean energy.

The Cop28 summit was now more than 12 hours into overtime after it was officially scheduled to end at 6pm, Gulf time, on Tuesday.

It has been an exhausting and emotional marathon slog to reach this point. The Monday draft of the so-called “Global Stocktake” agreement had provoked furious and heart-wrenching responses.

“We did not come here to sign our death warrant. We came here to fight for 1.5C and for the only way to achieve that: a fossil fuel phase-out … We will not go silently to our watery graves,” said John M. Silk, head of delegation for the Marshall Islands, whose low-lying island nation faces devastating sea-level rise in the coming decades.

A representative for the EU also called the draft “unacceptable” while the US said that the wording, including about fossil fuels, needed to be “substantially strengthened”.

A number of other nations, the UK among them, called the text “disappointing” and said that it needed to go further.