UN Climate Summit Ratifies Transition Away From Fossil Fuels - Horowitz

UN Climate Summit Ratifies Transition Away From Fossil Fuels - Horowitz

The most important takeaway from the recently concluded COP 28 UN Climate Summit was the agreement of nearly 200 nations to accelerate the transition away from carbon-producing fossil fuels.  The specific language of the agreement sets a policy of “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.”  

 

The significance of this agreement, signaling the eventual end of the fossil fuel era, was noted by world leaders and climate advocates alike. "It is the first time that the world unites around such a clear text on the need to transition away from fossil fuels,” Norway’s climate minister Espen Barth Ede told Axios. “It has been the elephant in the room, at last, we address it head on." 

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US special climate envoy John Kerry sounded a similar note, "For the very first time at a COP, fossil fuels have been on the table as a major part of our negotiations”, said the former secretary of state at a post-summit media conference. “And the decision that came out of this clearly embraces transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, so as to achieve net zero by 2050."   With the United States’ capacity to influence the actions of other nations on the climate renewed by the Biden administration walking the walk on the home front, Kerry’s proactive climate diplomacy was essential to securing the agreement.

 

Along the same lines. World Resources Institute president and CEO Ani Dasgupta said, “Fossil fuels finally faced a reckoning at the U.N. climate negotiations after three decades of dodging the spotlight. This historic outcome marks the beginning of the end of the fossil fuel era.”

 

Among the other components of the consensus overall agreement are a commitment to tripling renewables and doubling energy efficiency by 2030, as well as the establishment of a Global Stocktake.  As described by the UN Climate Summit, global stocktake is “a process for countries and stakeholders to see where they’re collectively making progress towards meeting the goals of the Paris Climate Change Agreement – and where they’re not.” The first one will be completed by the end of this year. This way it can provide leverage to generate stepped-up commitments in nations’ 2025 climate action plans.

 

While this year’s agreement is voluntary with no enforcement mechanism-- as was the landmark Paris Climate Agreement which it builds from--most experts agree that it sends an important market signal.  “We now tomorrow move forward in implementing this,” German climate envoy, Jennifer Morgan told Time Magazine. “Every investor should understand now that the future investments that are profitable and long-term are renewable energy—and investing in fossil fuels is a stranded asset.”

 

The world’s nations coming together to explicitly endorse, pledge to work towards, and most importantly, accelerate the transition from fossil fuels to non-carbon producing renewable energy is an important step forward.  This is a transition that is already underway, but it must be substantially speeded up in order to limit global temperature increases to the 1.5% Celsius or 2.7% Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels scientists tell us is required to avoid the worst consequences of global warming. That is the planet-saving work ahead.