COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber hailed a climate deal approved by almost 200 countries on Wednesday as a “historic package” of measures which offered a “robust plan” to keep the target of 1.5C within reach.
“We have delivered a paradigm shift that has the potential to redefine our economies,” he said during the closing session of the COP28 summit, shortly after the deal was approved.
He added a note of caution for nations: “An agreement is only as good as its implementation. We are what we do, not what we say.”
The document recognized “the need for deep, rapid and sustained reductions in GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions in line with 1.5C pathways” and called upon nations to take actions including:
“(a) Tripling renewable energy capacity globally and doubling the global average annual rate of energy efficiency improvements by 2030;
(b) Rapidly phasing down unabated coal and limiting the permitting of new and unabated coal power generation;
(c) Accelerating efforts globally towards net zero emissions energy systems, utilizing zero and low carbon fuels well before or by around mid-century;
(d) Transitioning away from fossil fuels in our energy systems, beginning in this decade, in a just, orderly and equitable manner so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science;
(e) Accelerating zero and low emissions technologies, including, inter alia, renewables, nuclear, abatement and removal technologies, such as carbon capture and utilization and storage particularly in hard to abate sectors, and low carbon hydrogen production, so as to enhance efforts towards substitution of unabated fossil fuels in energy systems.
(f) Accelerating and substantially reducing non-CO2 emissions, including, in particular, methane emissions globally by 2030;
(g) Accelerating emissions reductions from road transport through a range of pathways, including development of infrastructure and rapid deployment of zero emission vehicles;
(h) Phasing out of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that do not address energy poverty or just transitions, as soon as possible“
