COP28 Ends With a Deal on Fossil Fuels. Now Comes the Hard Part
“There is a phrase that was used in the text: ‘orderly transition.’ Well, it’s going to be messy,” Akshat Rathi says on this week’s Zero.
Attendees arrive at the Blue Zone on day three of the COP28 climate conference.
Photographer: Annie Sakkab/BloombergThis year’s COP28 started as a fraught climate summit presided over by the chief executive of an oil company — and ended with an agreement among 200 nations to transition away from fossil fuels. It’s an auspicious conclusion that some are already heralding as a “turning point” in the climate fight.
Of course, few are 100% happy with the outcome of this year’s conference. Limiting warming to 1.5C is still out of reach, little progress was made on adaptation, and negotiators failed to agree on standards for a new United Nations-overseen emissions market. The final language around transitioning away from fossil fuels also leaves plenty of room for interpretation.