Bowen says ‘world has stepped up’ as COP28 calls for move away from fossil fuels

Australian Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen said the “world has stepped up” after nearly 200 nations agreed a major breakthrough in climate change action.

Nearly 200 nations have – for the first time ever – called for the world to transition away from fossil fuels as a contributor to climate change.

Australian Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen said the “world has stepped up” after the UN COP28 meeting on Wednesday, held in Dubai, approved the call after 13 days of discussions.

“The message from this COP is loud and clear: our global future is in renewable energy. The transition is on and needs to move faster,” he said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

Australia and more than 100 other countries called and worked for a step change at this COP.

And today, the world has stepped up.

The message from this COP is loud and clear: our global future is in renewable energy. The transition is on and needs to move faster.#cop28pic.twitter.com/UfZjWEnd2O

— Chris Bowen (@Bowenchris) December 13, 2023

COP28 president Sultan Al Jaber, whose role as head of the United Arab Emirates’ national oil company raised suspicion among many environmentalists, addressed the meeting, saying: “You did step up, you showed flexibility, you put common interest ahead of self-interest.”

Climate change Minister Chris Bowen at the COP28 in Dubai on Monday. Picture: Jacquelin Magnay

The United Arab Emirates, he said, was “rightly proud” of its role in bringing “transformational change” to the planet, he said.

“The world needed to find a new way. And by following our North Star, we have found that new path,” he said to applause, referring to the goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Sultan Jaber hours earlier released a draft of the agreement aiming to bring onboard countries from islands fearing extinction to Saudi Arabia, which has led the charge to keep exporting its oil.

Toughening language from an earlier draft that was roundly denounced. The agreement calls for “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems in a just, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade, so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science”.

It marked the first mention of all fossil fuels in 28 years of climate summits.

“For the first time in 30 years, we might now reach the beginning of the end of fossil fuels,”

Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, president of the UNFCCC COP28 Climate Conference, speaks during a plenary session on Wednesday. Picture: Fadel Dawod/Getty Images

EU climate chief Wopke Hoekstra said before heading into the plenary session.

Danish negotiator Dan Jorgensen, part of a group in charge of making headway, called the agreement “historic progress”.

The text, however, stopped short of calls during the summit for a “phase-out” of oil, gas and coal, which together account for around three-quarters of the emissions responsible for the planetary crisis.

Low-lying islands fear extinction from rising sea levels and worsening storms, with the Marshall Islands denouncing the earlier draft as a “death warrant”.

The bloc of small island states called the revised text “an improvement” but it reiterated concerns, saying that the deal was “incremental and not transformational”.

Sultan Jaber’s earlier draft merely suggested that nations “could” reduce the consumption and production of fossil fuels, among other options, drawing fury from green groups.

Climate activists protested against fossil fuels during COP28 in Dubai. Picture: Giuseppe Cacace/AFP

Environmentalists virtually all saw the new text as an improvement, although many cautioned that there will still far more to do.

The agreement also made more explicit the near-term goals in the goal of ending net emissions by 2050.

It called for the world to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 43 per cent by 2030 compared with 2019 levels.

- With AFP

Originally published as Bowen says ‘world has stepped up’ as COP28 calls for move away from fossil fuels