COP28 approves unprecedented agreement to abandon fossil fuels

RRepresentatives from more than 200 countries agreed at COP28, this Wednesday, to start reducing the global consumption of fossil fuels, in an unprecedented agreement, according to Reuters.

The agreement was reached after a two-week summit in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, and aims to give a signal to investors and politicians about global unity to end the use of fossil fuels, something that scientists point out as the only way to save the world from a climate catastrophe.

“It is the first time that the world has come together around such a clear text on the need to abandon fossil fuels,” explained Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide about the agreement. “This has been the elephant in the room. We’ve finally addressed it head on”he stressed, quoted by the news agency.

More than 100 countries have been advocating strong, assertive language to “phase out” the use of oil, gas and coal, but the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) led by Saudi Arabia was against it, arguing that emissions reductions could be made without ‘cutting’ specific fuels.

At a conference in Doha on Tuesday, Kuwait’s oil minister, Saad al-Barrak, denounced an “aggressive attack” by the West. The country is part of OPEC.

But what does the agreement say?

According to Reuters, the agreement in question calls in detail for “the transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a fair, orderly and equitable way… in order to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, in accordance with science”.

The document also calls for tripling renewable energy capacity by 2030, accelerating efforts to reduce coal and accelerating technologies that allow, for example, capturing and storing carbon.

With the ‘green light’ for the agreement, it is now up to countries to move forward with measures at national level and investments that meet this decision.

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