What happened at COP28?

Charlotte o’neill summarises the key events and outcomes of this year’s un climate conference, COP28.

Article by: Charlotte O'Neill

Photo by Ilyass SEDDOUG on Unsplash

COP28, which began on the 30th November 2023, was set to be one of the most controversial, but equally one of the most important, climate summits yet.

Hosted in Dubai by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), it was proposed to be the most inclusive and listening-based conference yet, with over 70,000 attendees, including youth climate movement representatives and leaders of Indigenous groups from around the world. 

COP28 was the summit that would bring about the conclusion of the first Global Stocktake since the Paris Agreement in 2015, an ‘inflection point’ that would assess how countries are measuring up to their proposed plans to reduce their carbon outputs and adapt to the already present changes in climate. 

Despite its ambitious aims however, the summit was tainted by accusations of greenwashing, and controversy over fossil fuel phase-out. 

President of COP28 was Dr Sultan Al Jaber, CEO of the oil and gas company Adnoc, who was accused of planning to use the conference to make new oil and gas deals, which he denies. 

With over 2,000 COP28 attendees being connected to the oil industry - more than those from the ten countries most vulnerable to climate change - the claim that COP28 would listen to those most in need was called into question. 

So, what was achieved at COP28? We have summarised the key events from each day of the conference:

30th November

A successful start to the conference: a new fund to deal with loss and damage caused to countries affected by climate change became operational, with a pool of over $270 million (over £213 million) committed in support. 

1st December

Over $200 million (over £157 million) was mobilised towards food security and low carbon agriculture. 

A new fund, Alterra, was also launched, set to provide $250 billion (over £197 billion) to climate projects in developing countries by 2030.  

2nd December

President Ruto of Kenya announced the Africa Green Industrialization Initiative, with funds of over $4 billion (over £3 billion) to help African countries invest in renewable energy infrastructure. 

Meanwhile, 50 oil and gas companies joined the Oil and Gas Decarbonisation Charter, which intends to speed up the industry’s progress towards reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050. 

3rd December

$1.7 billion (over £1.3 billion) was mobilised towards a nature conservation finance fund and Hindou Ibrahim, Chair of the Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change called for more funding to be allocated to Indigenous people and organisations, to assist in their collaboration to protect the environment. 

Meanwhile, the Guardian published a report that Al Jaber had stated “There is no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says that the phase-out of fossil fuel is what’s going to achieve 1.5°C”, in talks that took place on the 21st November. This news again called into question whether COP28 would bring about genuine change, or if it was instead overrun with greenwashing.  

4th December

By the 4th, over $57 billion (over £45 billion) had been put towards climate funding. 

On this day, a conference was also held to discuss the role of women in climate change mitigation, and how climate change is having a greater impact on women in the global south.

5th December

The sixth day of COP28 focused on the global cooling sector. Delegates looked at how to cut emissions from refrigerants by up to 98%, guided by the Global Cooling Watch Report. 

6th December

The focus of the seventh day of COP was on sustainable urban development. Initiatives in this area include a partnership between France and Morocco to improve building standards, as well as the release of new technologies to measure the benefits of fifteen-minute cities, and to track methane emission using satellites.

7th December

The 7th December was an official rest day, where no official events took place. 

8th December

Youth climate campaigners engaged in a youth stocktake, to ascertain the importance of youth engagement in climate negotiations and to work out how young people can become more involved in the climate movement. 

9th December

On this day, the COP28 presidency and International Energy Agency reaffirmed the need to limit global temperatures to no more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, releasing five pillars to follow for success. 

10th December

$186.6 million (over £147 million) was announced for projects protecting forests, mangroves, and marine environments. Thirty countries signed up for the Freshwater Challenge to protect 30% of freshwater ecosystems by 2030. 

11th December 

On the 11th December, the planned-penultimate day of COP28, a draft of the final deal was released - the final stage of the global stocktake. However, the draft failed to mention the much-needed phase-out of fossil fuels.

The draft, which instead suggested that countries ‘could’ reduce their fossil-fuel emissions, was met with backlash. Many countries claimed the proposal was insufficient and accused Saudi Arabia and other petrostates of stalling the phase-out of fossil fuels.

Twelve year-old campaigner, Licypriya Kangujam, made her voice heard by storming onto the stage and demanding an end to fossil fuels.

According to the United Nations (UN) itself, fossil fuels are the largest contributor to climate change, accounting for over 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 90% of all carbon dioxide emissions. The phase-out of fossil fuels is essential to prevent further warming.

So, what did the stocktake say about nations’ progress towards meeting the Paris Agreement?

In September, the UN released a report that demonstrated that the world was not on track to reach its goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C, as outlined in the 2015 Paris Agreement. As per the Paris Agreement, to meet this goal, global carbon emissions would have to peak  by 2025 at the latest and decline 43% by 2030. 

So far, however, there has been no sign of a reduction in the use of fossil fuels (essential to meet this target), with 12% more greenhouse gas emissions since 2012. 

The international community amended their Nationally Determined Contributions, to bring them more in line with the levels needed to reach the ‘north star’ of 1.5°C of warming; this would involve a cut of 43% of greenhouse gas emissions this decade. 

12th December

With nations failing to agree on a fossil fuel plan, it was announced that COP28 was set to overrun the host-set deadline. The original draft was referred to as a ‘death certificate for small islands’. 

On what was planned to be the final day of COP28, debate over the wording of the final report continued. Discussions focused on details such as whether fossil fuels should be phased-down or phased-out, with many oil-producing countries preferring the former.

So, what was the final decision? Did the delegates of COP28 realign themselves on the path of stopping human-induced climate change, or did any hope of resolution get shot down in record-breaking-temperature-induced flames? 

13th December

On the 13th December, a day later than originally planned, the final COP28 deal was released. 

Deemed ‘historic’ by some, the deal did not ask for countries to phase out fossil fuels, but rather that they ‘transition away’ from them. In a deal that is not legally binding, it has been argued that this wording is not nearly strong enough. 

Other points made in the deal were to triple renewable energy use, phase down ‘unabated’ (to use something without any reduction in intensity, unabated was another highly controversial word used in COP28) coal use, reduce methane emissions, invest more in emission free or low carbon technologies and phase out fossil fuel subsidies that don’t allow for a just energy transition. 

COP28 Conclusions

COP28 has succeeded in providing a rough guideline for countries to follow in their journey to net zero carbon emissions.

Whilst a phase-out of fossil fuels is not mentioned in the text, it has been said that the proposals recognise that ‘the days of oil, gas and coal powering global economies are numbered’. It is hoped that the agreement made will ignite more change, which may make a deal including a phase-out of fossil fuels more feasible in the future. 

Having purported itself to be the most inclusive Climate Conference yet, COP28 had invited many different groups to take part in discussions, including Indigenous and youth groups. Indigenous changemaker Raylene Whitford expressed pride at seeing the number of Indigenous groups able to engage in the talks, saying “Historically, we’ve been excluded from these types of conversations. So, it’s so great to see Indigenous People from so many different countries here at the conference”. 

Over 80% of the Earth’s biodiversity is protected by Indigenous People, so it is important that they have a seat at the climate conference table. But still, many Indigenous People invited feel that they are there to be observers rather than active participants. This is something that should change. 

The next COP is set to be hosted by Azerbaijan, a country with an economy that heavily relies on fossil fuel production. What impact this will have on the next set of climate negotiations, remains to be seen.