“The world agreed to ‘try harder’, shorthand for ‘not any time soon’”
OPINION
Depending on who you believe, the latest UN Climate Change Conference, COP28, held in Dubai in December, was an historic success, a huge disappointment or a step in the right direction. Whoever is right, it did culminate in an agreement of sorts, which is quite an accomplishment after 14 days of intense negotiation involving 85,000 attendees from nearly 200 countries. But the agreement was merely to ‘transition away’ from fossil fuels instead of phasing them out altogether – which is critical – and had no clear goals or fixed timelines.
Essentially, the world agreed to ‘try harder’, which is shorthand for ‘not happening any time soon’.
No one can deny that we are failing. Eight years after the Paris Agreement, which committed to limiting global warming to no more than 1.5˚C above pre-industrial levels, the only real change has been in the intensifying severity of the climate crisis. COP28 was held in the hottest year in human history, when we witnessed the catastrophic impact of climate change for ourselves, with extreme heatwaves, severe storms, floods, droughts, melting ice and wildfires becoming the new ‘norm’ as we head into scarily uncharted territory.
It could have been worse. The fact that fossil fuels even got a mention is a triumph. One draft version of the agreement actually dropped all references to the root cause of climate change entirely. Food also got a mention (it’s hard to believe it has taken so long, given that food is responsible for roughly a third of all global greenhouse gas emissions). But while it is now on the table, with more than 150 countries agreeing to integrate food and agriculture into their climate plans, it’s only a side dish – the language doesn’t go far enough and the declaration is not legally binding.
COP28 was hosted by the United Arab Emirates, one of the world’s leading petrostates, and the conference president, Sultan Al Jaber, is head of UAE’s national oil company. Maybe that set the tone? Fossil fuel and agricultural lobbyists were present in record numbers (literally in their thousands).
It’s not difficult to conclude that this over-representation of vested interests inevitably influenced the outcome by moving the narrative away from anything that might si
