By Rachel Max ’24 The COP28 Climate Conference was held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from November 30 to December 12, 2023, in which leaders, companies and activists from around the world met to make plans for dealing with the climate crisis. This year’s edition of the annual “Conference of the Parties”, created great controversy due to both the lackluster nature of the final agreement and the United Arab Emirates’ own reliance on the oil industry.
“After the growing momentum of the climate movement at COP26 in Glasgow two years ago and COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh last year, I was cautiously optimistic about this year’s COP28 conference in Abu Dhabi,” said junior Shayne Cytrynbaum. “However, after it was revealed that a fossil fuel CEO was chairing the proceedings and that 2000 corporate lobbyists were in attendance, I quickly lost faith in the COP28’s ability to tackle the climate crisis. There were still some accomplishments made, but nowhere near enough, and the integrity of the whole proceedings was thrown into doubt by the oil industry’s co-optation of the climate conference.” The conference was overshadowed by controversy surrounding its president, Sultan Al-Jaber, who is the CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Corporation (ADNOC), the largest oil company in the Emirates and 12th-largest in the world. Al-Jaber has increased ADNOC’s oil production from 3 million to 5 million barrels of oil per day, and the New York Times has commented that ADNOC, under Al-Jaber’s leadership, is one of only a few oil companies continuing to raise oil production in the 2020s. Al-Jaber caused significant alarm when he inaccurately stated that “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 1.5C,” just days before the conference’s start. Al-Jaber later tried to retract his comments, but it destroyed any remaining support Al-Jaber had from most scientists and activists. In addition, many criticized the UAE’s dependence on the oil industry, its history of human rights abuses against poor immigrant workers, its lack of freedom of speech or protest, and its involvement in the catastrophic Yemeni Civil War, which has killed hundreds of thousands of civilians. Furthermore, leaked documents revealed that the UAE planned to use COP28 as an opportunity to negotiate oil and gas deals with 15 countries, which Al-Jaber has denied. Junior Oren Goldman said, "I think that it is concerning that the COP 28 Conference, which is meant to find solutions to the climate crisis, might have instead been used to benefit the United Arab Emirates' fossil fuel industry." However, the Conference itself still saw some major accomplishments. The final agreement made an unprecedented call for all countries to transition away from using fossil fuels in order to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, in line with what UN scientists say is necessary to avoid climate catastrophe. While this is a step in the right direction, many activists and countries are disappointed to see that the final version does not directly call for a “phase-out” of fossil fuels, as some oil-rich countries (including the United Arab Emirates) lobbied hard for a mere “phase-down,” which scientists say is not enough. Similarly, there are concerns that the vague wording will allow countries to use loopholes to avoid resolving the climate crisis and possibly cause even more damage. In particular, the agreements recognize the role of “transitional fuels,” which is often interpreted to mean natural gas, which is still a dangerous fossil fuel that contributes to global heating. “COP28 is the first [UN Climate Conference] to talk about the end of ‘fossil fuels,’ so it tells us what we already knew — the fossil fuel era is ending. But it’s a desperately weak deal that again leaves the Global South without the climate finance it needs,” said Ugandan climate justice activist Vanessa Nakate. “It also mentions transition fuels, and fairytale tech like carbon capture and storage. The influence of 2000 fossil fuel lobbyists was clear to see in this process. We cannot have another compromised COP again.” Another accomplishment from COP28 was the creation of a new “Loss and Damages Fund” worth $30 billion, which will help developing countries of the Global South to recover from climate disaster, preemptively protect themselves from disaster, and transition their economies away from fossil fuels. Activists have been pushing for a Loss and Damages Fund for decades, but the last few holdout countries agreed to the plan on the first day of the conference, and it should go into effect in the coming year. The exact details of this fund had been discussed prior to the conference but were officially accepted on the first day. However, only $549 million has been pledged so far, while the estimate for climate-related damages by 2030 is between $280 billion and $580 billion per year. Therefore, some activists believe that certain wealthy countries, especially the US, have not pledged enough, leading some to lose faith in the plan while others continue to fight for more ambitious pledges. “I think it’s crazy that we are willing to spend so much more on something like the military than on preventing global climate collapse,” said freshman Max Lefkowitz. “This is something all the world’s governments must lend a hand on, as it affects all of us, and it’s more important and permanent than one country’s short-term goals.” As the 28th conference passes, with big changes promised, ones which we can expect to see in the next year, we can look forward to next year’s conference that is to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan, where we will hopefully see the UN has followed through on their promises and will have worked towards resolving the concerns that some activists still have.
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