The COP28 UAE, which took place at Expo City Dubai from Nov. 30 to Dec. 12, 2023, concluded with a historic agreement by 198 Parties to deliver a new era of climate action. Recently, the Parties agreed on a landmark text named “The UAE Consensus” that sets out an ambitious climate agenda to keep 1.5°C within reach. The UAE Consensus calls on Parties to transition away from fossil fuels to reach net zero, encourages them to submit economy-wide nationally determined contributions (NDCs), includes a new specific target to triple renewables and double energy efficiency by 2030, and builds momentum towards a new architecture for climate finance.
COP28 is the 28th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The event takes place annually, and this year, it was held in the United Arab Emirates. The conference addressed the climate crisis by agreeing on ways to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. Over 85,000 delegates attended, including member states, business leaders, young people, climate scientists, indigenous peoples, journalists, and other experts and stakeholders.
The UAE Consensus, which follows a year of inclusive diplomatic engagements and two weeks of intense negotiations, reflects the COP28 Presidency’s goal to provide the most ambitious response possible to the Global Stocktake (GST) and deliver on the central aims of the Paris Agreement.
The GST is a comprehensive assessment of the world’s progress on climate action. Anchored in Article 14 of the Paris Agreement, it is intended to inform Parties to the Agreement on their progress against its goals, including but not limited to limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C.
Finding a new way
“The world needed to find a new way. By following our North Star, we have found that path,” said COP28 President Dr. Sultan Al Jaber during his closing speech. “We have worked very hard to secure a better future for our people and planet. We should be proud of our historic achievement.”
“I promised a different sort of COP. A COP that brought everyone together—private and public…civil society and faith leaders, youth, and indigenous peoples. Everyone came together from day one. Everyone united, acted, and delivered.”
Throughout the COP28 process, Al Jaber and the COP28 Presidency team have expressed determination to deliver “a plan that is led by the science” and to define a new way for this and future COPs based on the inclusion of diverse peoples and elevating the needs of the Global South. “It is a balanced plan that tackles emissions, bridges the gap on adaptation, reimagines global finance, and delivers on loss and damage,” said Al Jaber. “It is built on common ground. It is strengthened by inclusivity, and it is reinforced by collaboration. It is an enhanced, balanced, but make no mistake, historic package to accelerate climate action.”
Major commitments contained in the final negotiated text include:
• An unprecedented reference to transitioning away from all fossil fuels to enable the world to reach net zero by 2050;
• A significant step forward in the expectations for the next round of NDCs by encouraging “economy-wide emission reduction targets;”
• Building momentum behind the financial architecture reform agenda, recognizing the role of credit rating agencies for the first time, and calling for a scale-up of concessional and grant finance;
• A new, specific target to triple renewables and double energy efficiency by 2030;
• Recognizing the need to significantly scale up adaptation finance beyond the doubling to meet urgent and evolving needs.
Mainstreaming youth inclusion
Outside the GST, COP28 delivered historic negotiated outcomes to operationalize loss and damage, securing $792 million of early pledges, providing a framework for the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA), and institutionalizing the role of the Youth Climate Champion to mainstream youth inclusion at future COPs.
Throughout 2023, the COP28 Presidency has taken bold and decisive steps to deliver beyond the negotiated text through its action agenda, which spans four pillars: Fast-tracking a just and orderly energy transition; fixing climate finance to make it more available, affordable, and accessible; focusing on people, nature, lives, and livelihoods, and; fostering total inclusivity in climate action.
The scale of achievements delivered under the action agenda has been unprecedented for any COP. It is a testament to the willingness of representatives from many sectors and industries to take positive action.
Under the total action agenda at COP28, over $85 billion in funding has been mobilized, and 11 pledges and declarations have been launched and received historic support.
Action agendas
Significant action agenda achievements, which sit apart from the negotiated text, include:
- The launch of Alterra, UAE’s $30-billion catalytic private finance vehicle, which seeks to mobilize $250 billion for global climate action;
- The “COP28 UAE Declaration on Agriculture, Food, & Climate” embedding sustainable agriculture and food systems in the response to climate change. It has received endorsements from 158 countries;
- The “COP28 UAE Declaration on Climate and Health,” to accelerate the development of climate-resilient, sustainable, and equitable health systems, earning the endorsement of 144 countries;
- The Global Decarbonization Accelerator (GDA)—a series of landmark energy initiatives across the public and private sectors to speed up the energy transition, including: The Global Renewables and Energy Efficiency Pledge to triple worldwide installed renewable energy generation capacity to at least 11,000 GW and to double the global average annual rate of energy; efficiency improvements to more than 4% by 2030, of which 132 countries have endorsed, and; the Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter (OGDC), which commits signatories to zero methane emissions, ending routine flaring by 2030 and net-zero operations by 2050 at the latest. To date, 52 companies, representing over 40% of global oil production, have signed up;
- The “Coalition for High Ambition Multilevel Partnerships (Champ)” pledges to advance the integration of sub-national leaders in climate-related decision-making, which 67 countries have endorsed;
- The COP28 Presidency’s receipt of the Global Youth Statement: The collective climate policy demands of children and youth from over 160 countries worldwide. Its delivery follows a year of youth engagements championed by Shamma Al Mazrui, the first official Youth Climate Champion.
The COP28 Presidency has been transparent in its intention to ensure that the agreements made at COP28 are delivered and followed through to COP29 and COP30, with mechanisms to track progress against implementation. Already, the Presidency has signed a deal with Brazil, the host country of COP30, to deepen collaboration and increase climate ambitions by COP30. Central to the agreement with Brazil will be working with Azerbaijan, the hosts of COP29, to ensure Parties come to COP30 with ambitious updated climate plans for action in this critical decade, as well as whole-of-economy NDCs building on the momentum generated at COP28. (Story courtesy of United Nations Climate Change)