The newest draft of the COP28 agreement that emerged Monday evening local time significantly dials back the scale of actions to reduce fossil fuels, specifically by erasing the terms “phase out” or “phase down” from the options.
Yes, but: This is not the final text, and many countries are expected to vigorously oppose this draft during what is expected to be a long night in Dubai and a contentious day on Tuesday.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) added that there is a persistent disconnect between what happens at COPs and in the real world, where emissions keep increasing. “We tend to devolve into COP-land in which we worry about what text is going to get into the document that has no direct effect on emissions, and who’s going to make what pledge that they then don’t follow through on,”
With oil executives in charge of COP28, success was never an option. The entire point of COP28 is to manipulate the global conversation about climate change in favor of fossil fuel companies. It is not a serious discussion about how to address climate change. It is a serious discussion about how to increase fossil fuel production.