COP28 ends: A look at key decisions from the world’s biggest climate summit

Over 60 countries signed the Global Cooling Pledge, a new initiative launched at COP28 to reduce cooling-related emissions across all sectors by at least 68 percent globally by 2050 compared to 2022 levels

The two-week-long COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) came to an end on December 13 with talks going into overtime as member nations engaged in discussions over how to deal with fossil fuels in the summit's final text.

In the closing plenary of the summit on December 13, COP28 President UAE’s Sultan Al Jaber said that this year’s UN-sponsored summit saw a robust action plan to keep global warming limited to the targeted 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial times set in the 2015 Paris deal within reach.

“It is a balanced plan, that tackles emissions, bridges the gap on adaptation, reimagines global finance, and delivers on loss and damage. It is built on common ground. It is strengthened by inclusivity. And it is reinforced by collaboration,” Jaber said.

Talking about the many firsts that COP28 managed to achieve, Al Jaber said, “A global goal to triple renewables and double energy efficiency. Declarations on agriculture, food and health. Many more oil and gas companies stepping up for the first time on methane and emissions. And now we have language on fossil fuels in our final agreement. All of these are world firsts.”

Moneycontrol gives you a wrap of the biggest decisions approved during this year’s COP28.

• Transition away from fossil fuels: After two weeks of hard-fought negotiations, representatives from nearly 200 countries today agreed to begin reducing global consumption of fossil fuels to avert the worst of climate change. This is the most important achievement of COP28 since no previous COP text has mentioned moving away from oil and gas, the fuels that have underpinned the global economy for decades. “Transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade, to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science,” read the Global Stocktake (GST) text. Unlike the mention of coal, the text, however, had no reference to oil and gas.
• Triple renewable energy capacity and double energy efficiency by 2030: At least 117 countries at COP28 agreed to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030. The countries signed the “Global Renewables and Energy Efficiency Pledge” under which they have to double the global average annual rate of energy efficiency improvements from around 2 percent to over 4 percent every year until 2030.
• Loss and damage fund: On the first day of COP28 itself countries agreed to formally establish a loss and damage fund to support vulnerable countries dealing with the effects of climate change. The developed countries, most responsible for the climate emergency, have pledged a combined total of at least $700 million to the loss and damage fund during COP28.
• Phase-down of unabated coal: The final COP28 text called for “accelerating efforts towards the phase-down of unabated coal power”. While the previous draft text also talked about limiting new coal plants, the same was deleted in the final document. This weakened language of coal phase-down would act in favour of India, which is faced with the challenge of meeting an ever-increasing power demand while keeping electricity accessible and affordable.
• Oil and gas companies pledge to lower methane emissions: In a first at any COP summit, at least 50 oil and natural gas producers, including Saudi Aramco and 29 other national oil companies, signed an agreement to reduce their carbon emissions to net zero by 2050 and curb methane emissions to near-zero by 2030. According to a COP28 spokesperson, this agreement is significant because these 50 oil and gas companies account for 40 percent of the global oil production. They committed to setting interim targets that would reduce methane emissions to 0.2 percent of oil and natural gas production by 2030, and to end routine flaring.
• Food and agriculture declaration: Another first at COP28 was that countries agreed upon the role of food systems and agriculture in carbon emissions. More than 130 countries signed this declaration on the premise that food contributes a third of the warming gases increasing global temperatures.
• Declaration of climate and health: The health impacts of climate change took centre stage for the first time in 28 years of UN climate talks. The declaration calls for climate action to achieve “benefits for health from deep, rapid, and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, including from just transitions, lower air pollution, active mobility, and shifts to sustainable healthy diets.”
• Global Cooling Pledge: Over 60 countries signed the Global Cooling Pledge, a new initiative launched at COP28 to reduce cooling-related emissions across all sectors by at least 68 percent globally by 2050 compared to 2022 levels. It aims to do this by promoting the adoption of energy-efficient cooling technologies, reducing refrigerant leakage, and phasing out harmful refrigerants. Additionally, the pledge will provide financial and technical assistance to developing countries to help them transition to sustainable cooling technologies.