The participants of the World Climate Conference (COP28) in Dubai agreed on common conclusions. They call for the first time to abandon the use of fossil fuels, it says Deutsche says.
The president of the conference, Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, stood up and began to applaud, saying at the same time that it was a "historic package". It is a strong action plan to achieve the goal of limiting warming to 1,5 degrees Celsius, the Sultan said. This is the goal that the international community established in 2015, and it is about limiting the warming of the planet Earth to 1,5 degrees compared to the pre-industrial age.
"With the compromise conclusion, the negotiators proved their 'flexibility' and prioritized 'common over their own interests,'" Al Jaber said.
Abandoning fossil fuels
The text calls for the tripling of the world's capacities of renewable energy sources and the doubling of energy performance by 2030. However, it also mentions "transitional energy sources", such as natural gas, i.e. the disputed technology of extracting and storing carbon dioxide.
The document calls on countries to abandon fossil fuels and their energy systems. More than a hundred countries have previously requested far-reaching wording on the cessation of oil, gas and coal use, but this has not been explicitly stated.
The text of the presidency of the conference from the United Arab Emirates was published this morning, and was adopted only a few hours later at the plenum.
Guterres welcomes the decisions
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres welcomed the conclusions.
"Science tells us that limiting warming to 1,5 degrees is impossible without abandoning the use of fossil fuels. This was recognized by a growing and broad coalition of countries at COP28," Guterres wrote on the X social network. "The age of fossil fuels must end - and it must end justly."
UN Climate Secretary Simon Steele called on the international community to implement the Dubai conclusions. "Now all governments and businesses must put those promises into practice without delay," he told the students at the conference.
And the German government supported the conclusions from Dubai. Foreign Minister Analena Burbock said that "a huge stone fell from her heart". The German delegation announced: "There is great joy in the German delegation and the Minister of Foreign Affairs because the world has decided to end the fossil age."
Despite the fact that it is a compromise solution, the European Union also expressed its satisfaction.
"For the first time in 30 years, we can now reach the beginning of the end of fossil fuels," said European Climate Commissioner Wopke Hekstra.
Environmental and humanitarian organizations considered these conclusions to be a clear improvement over the previous draft and an "important signal", but at the same time criticized them as insufficient.
The extension of the dispute over oil, gas and coal
This summit was extended due to, among other things, the row over the abandonment of the use of oil, gas and coal. Namely, the conference was supposed to end on Tuesday.
The draft conclusions that were first presented by the Emirati Presidency on Monday were rejected by the vast majority of participants, including the European Union. It only envisaged a "reduction" in the use of fossil fuels.
BG/Deutsch vele
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