The year 2023 called for bold climate action with record heat, floods, fires and droughts ravaging the planet. But after tense talks at the Dubai COP28 summit, the deal fell short for many as a turning point, with a lack of fossil fuel phase-out plans.
Leaders from nearly 200 nations gathered this November to negotiate a path forward on climate change mitigation, as catastrophic climate impacts wracked the world in what will likely be the hottest year ever recorded. Despite two weeks of contentious talks, the timid deal acknowledges the role of fossil fuels in global warming for the first time but lacks concrete plans to wind down oil, gas and coal, which dismayed activists seeking faster action.
While hailed as an “important milestone”, the agreement to simply “transition away” from fossil fuels does the bare minimum, according to former Vice President Al Gore and others, who stressed this is long overdue after 30 years of climate meetings.
With no mandate to eliminate fossil fuels and no financial plans to fund cleaner energy transitions, hope now lies in whether bold follow-up actions can rapidly materialize to avoid breaching the 1.5C warming limit.
Doubts prevail on subsequent progress as the non-binding deal omits firm fossil phase-out roadmaps. Despite clean-tech advances and climate awareness growth, optimism dims without steep emissions cuts enabled by swiftly axing fossil fuel use per the science.