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More renewable energy capacity, a move away from fossil fuels and a compensation fund for poorer countries – the World Climate Conference has agreed on a final document. The most important results at a glance.
For two weeks, representatives from around 200 countries discussed environmental and climate protection at the COP28 world climate conference in Dubai. After a long struggle, they agreed on a final declaration. An important topic was the switch from fossil to renewable energies.
Moving away from fossil energy
For the first time, the global community has committed to saying goodbye to coal, oil and gas, at least on paper. The states agreed on a transition away from fossil fuels – but the phase out called for by many states is not mentioned.
The decision refers to “energy systems” – this could lead to discussions about the scope of the agreement. In addition, the decision is not binding under international law. No country can be forced to implement it. The dispute over the exit from oil, gas and coal was one of the sticking points of the two-week conference. The oil state Saudi Arabia, among others, resisted this.
Expansion of renewable energies
States are called upon to triple their renewable energy capacity by 2030. In the same period, energy efficiency is to be doubled. The decision lists a number of other options for reducing emissions, including nuclear power.
Processes for removing climate-damaging CO2 from the atmosphere are also mentioned. However, such technologies have not yet been used on a large scale and are controversial.
Compensation Fund
Poor and particularly vulnerable countries can count on support in the future if they are hit by floods, droughts and storms. A fund for climate-related damage and losses was set up on the first day of the climate conference. As host, the United Arab Emirates pledged $100 million, as did the federal government. In total, almost 800 million US dollars were raised in Dubai.
The financial instrument has long been on the wish list of developing countries. So far they have only received money for adapting to the climate crisis and projects to reduce emissions – but not for damage and losses. The fund is based at the World Bank for a transitional period.
Global adaptation goal
The states have agreed on guidelines for future adaptation to climate change. A number of goals are mentioned. Among other things, countries should prepare agriculture for climate change. Health systems should also be better prepared for the consequences of global warming. Industrialized countries are called upon to at least double aid payments to poorer countries for adjustment from the 2019 level by 2025.
A work program to develop such specifications was agreed at the climate conference in Glasgow in 2021. Compared to climate protection, this is considered more difficult because there are no clearly measurable variables for meaningful adaptation to global warming.
inventory to the Paris Agreement
The World Climate Conference in Dubai primarily wanted to take stock of the implementation of the Paris Agreement. This “First global stocktake” is the subject of the 21-page final document. This shows that if all of the states’ current voluntary commitments are implemented, humanity will be heading towards an increase in the global average temperature of 2.1 to 2.8 degrees.
Before the Paris Climate Agreement, individual models predicted an increase of up to four degrees. According to the final document, to further reduce global warming, a “comprehensive, rapid and sustainable reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions” of 43 percent by 2030 and 60 percent by 2035 compared to 2019 levels is required. By 2050, net carbon dioxide emissions should be reduced to zero.