At 7 a.m. on December 13, Sultan Al Jaber announced the historic agreement reached at COP28, which could mark the beginning of the end for fossil fuels. This announcement prompted a loud standing ovation in the room.
The negotiations between the 200 countries present at the summit in the United Arab Emirates were not easy, they lasted into the early hours of the morning, and the final text does not include a commitment to the gradual end of fossil fuels - oil, gas and coal, demanded by more than a hundred countries - but rather "to a transitionaway from them".
The document calls for "the transition from fossil fuels in energy systems in a fair, orderly and equitable way, accelerating the process in this crucial decade, so that carbon neutrality is achieved by 2050 in accordance with scientific recommendations".
Carbon neutrality does not imply not emitting carbon dioxide (CO2), but rather making every effort to reduce emissions and to offset any emissions that remain (for example, by creating forests, which absorb CO2).
Historic commitment at COP28
In any case, this is a historic agreement and commits countries to working together to prevent the planet from warming by more than 1.5 degrees compared to the average temperature of the pre-industrial era.
There is a promise to make a transition away from fossil fuels, but there are no binding targets or a concrete date for ending the use of fossil fuels.
On the EU's official website, Ursula von der Leyen states that "It is good news for the whole world that we now have a multilateral agreement to accelerate the reduction of emissions to net zero by 2050, with urgent action in this critical decade. This includes an agreement by all parties to move away from fossil fuels." The President of the European Commission added that the EU is ready "to do more" and knows "that more needs to be done".
"For the first time in 30 years, we may have reached the beginning of the end for fossil fuels," said the European Commissioner for the Environment, Wopke Hoekstra. This is the first time that a document from the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) mentions all the fossil fuels that are primarily responsible for climate change.
