An express procedure after days of hesitation and tension. Barely a few minutes into a plenary session that had been postponed several times, Sultan Al-Jaber struck the gavel. With this gesture, the President of the 28th Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28) sealed an agreement on the Global Stocktake, the most important text of this conference. This assessment of the 2015 Paris Agreement contains strong language against fossil fuels, which are responsible for 80% of global warming. This is a “historic” decision to accelerate climate protection, said Sultan Al-Jaber after a standing ovation in the hall.
Before this important moment, it took a sleepless night searching for terms that would be acceptable to delegations from all over the world. On Tuesday, December 12, the official day of the end of the 28th Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28), President Sultan Al-Jaber initially lost his bet to finish on time. In Dubai, no one really believed in it. Too much pressure, too many topics, too much resistance hovered between the country pavilions… For the first time in the history of climate diplomacy, a UN conference focused on fossil fuels. The Emirati official therefore continued to postpone the publication of the final version of the Global Stocktake, an assessment of the 2015 Paris Agreement intended to boost states' ambitions. Then he deliberated all night: the United States, the European Union, countries like Bangladesh and, above all, the Energy Minister of Saudi Arabia, Prince Abdulaziz Ben Salman, who arrived after midnight… Necessary night work to prepare the ground for this last day of plenary sessions.
Looking for a delicate compromise between the parties most ready for a long-term phase-out of fossil fuels (the European Union, representatives of small islands, many Latin American countries) and the producing countries that stick to their economic model, Sultan Al-Jaber tried it's a new formula. In the “Energy Package” of the latest version of the text, he included “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems” without specifying a date.
This lexical and diplomatic creativity makes it possible to dispense with the term “exit” that bristled the Gulf states while trying to catch up with the most ambitious. The goal of achieving CO2 neutrality in 2050 is recalled. It is also an opportunity to include developing and emerging countries, as this development must take place in a “fair, orderly and equitable” manner, i.e. at different paces depending on the economy.
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