COP28 - The results

Yesterday was a day of great relief in the climate realm, and so today is a day of contemplation. On the last day of the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, all the member countries could agree on the sentence: "Transition away from fossil fuels”. This is the first time fossil fuels has ever been mentioned in one of the closing agreements after a COP climate meeting.

The day prior, the first draft had removed any mentioning of fossil fuels altogether. Therefore the sorely needed phrase about the world agreeing to transition away from fossil fuels came as an early Christmas present to us all. However, in an ideal world, this Christmas present should have been delivered decades ago when the science first started to see the correlations between fossil fuels and global warming. But getting the sentence in is the first start.

At COP, the little words matter. Discussion points on using words like “phase out” or “phase down” are both considered to be stronger wordings than what was agreed. But as the UN Secretary General, António Guterres said in his closing statement: “The era of fossil fuels must end – and it must end with justice and equity” and “The world cannot afford delays, indecision, or half measures.”.

The previously mentioned Global Stocktake showed that the world is already behind in upholding the 1,5 degree target set in the Paris agreement. But not all is doom and gloom. On the first day of the summit, consensus was reached on what was thought to be a more difficult discussion point - namely the “Loss and damage” fund to the worlds low income countries and those most vulnerable to climate disaster.

There is a lot of hope that CCS - Carbon Capture Storage, will be a magical saviour in the energy mix forward. However, there is a real need to make changes in how we look at energy. If CCS were to be the only thing we changed in order to reach the 1,5 degree target, we would need to build 8000 facilities worldwide, according to the book “The world at the tipping point” by Dag O Hessen. Currently, there are only 196 CCS facilities worldwide.

Therefore another qoute worth mentioning is from the president of COP28, Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber: “An agreement is only as good as its implementation. This historic consensus is only the beginning of the road". This is where the real work start.

COP28!

COP season is upon us once again, and this year is going to be exciting! This years COP is being nicknamed the “Action-COP” meaning that action must be taken. But first, let me give you some context:

COP28 , 30th of November - 12th of December is this year held in Dubai. This has been a controversial decision because the leader of COP is also the CEO of a state owned oil company with plans to expand. He claims that this makes him very suited to negotiate.

What is this years agenda?

• Loss and damage - the distribution of money to help aid vulnerable communities who have suffered loss after climate change must come be agreed upon

• Increasing the speed towards a global fund that will help low income countries tackle climate change

• Accelerate the speed towards a clean, but just transition in energy

• To close the enormous emission gap

• To make this years COP the most inclusive COP ever

News this year is also that there will be a “global climate overview”. This will close COP28, and is meant as a process to show which countries who are meeting their set targets and which ones are failing to deliver.

There is also a theme each day:

Day 1: World leaders - this is where high level roundtable conversations will take place and start the initiating conversations following up from previous meetings. There are three main trails of conversations; The climate convention trail, the Kyotoprotocol trail and the Paris agreement trail.

Day 2: Climate action is in the focus - this day, world leaders are still there and will discuss actionable next steps. There will also be a platform where local communities will hold their first ever annual youth round table talk, with focus on indigenous youth and youths from local communities.

Day 3: Health, rebuilding and peace - this is the first day where peace is a talking point. The aim is to come to consensus around the health systems response to climate change.

Day 4: Finance and trade, equality and accountability - this day will focus on closing any precious negotiations. There will be made financial suggestions on how to close the gaps where it is needed the most, and the economical challenges that hinders girls and women.

Day 5: Energy and industry, just transition and indigenous people - this day the focus will be how we can ensure decarbonisation, growth in jobs and economical possibilities and a just transition in the entire energy and industrial sector. It is also the day of ingenious people, where we acknowledge the importance of indigenous knowledge in protecting and manage the planets health.

Day 6: Multilevel negotiations, urbanisation and transportation - this day will promote solutions in all levels of society towards decarbonisation and how to build resistent environments and infrastructures.

Day 7: A day of rest and contemplation

Day 8: Youth, children, education and competence - the hope of this day is to give young people he opportunity to help shape the results of COP28. The day will feature just representations and stronger engagement mechanisms.

Day 9: Nature, use of land and ocean - conservation of nature and sustainable management of nature is essential to reach the targets in the Paris agreement.

Day 10: Food, agriculture and water - climate change is pressuring food and water supplies globally. This day will have safety of food and water as the main focus.

Day 11: Light at the end of the tunnel? There is no thematic days on the last two days of COP.

Day 12: Usually the talks go into the weekend and we must expect that from this years COP as well.

Here is your overview of the next two weeks. I would encourage you to find your passion in this and follow # on social media to see how and where you can get engaged in COP, even though you are not physically present. My hope for this years COP is that we will see action.

source: UN