Attempts to forge a historic deal at climate talks in Dubai are hanging by a thread. A draft agreement has failed to include any mention of 'phasing out' fossil fuels. The watered-down text at the COP28 summit has sparked anger among Pacific Island nations.
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00:00 In the final frantic days of COP28, the youngest member of Australia's delegation, oblivious
00:07 to the chaos around.
00:09 Apart from, you know, reminding everyone why they're here, like she's literally the embodiment
00:16 of the future.
00:18 Her mother, on the other hand, fully aware of the stakes at play.
00:21 It's coming to the pointy end. There's obviously some intransigence from certain countries
00:27 that don't want the mention of fossil fuels.
00:30 Those stakes were raised higher last night when a draft agreement failed to make any
00:34 mention of phasing out or phasing down fossil fuels.
00:38 In its place was a reference to reducing both the consumption and production of the fuels.
00:44 We have a text and we need to agree on the text. The time for discussion is coming to
00:51 an end.
00:54 Many poorer and more vulnerable countries were dismayed.
00:57 If we do not have strong mitigation outcomes at this COP, then we will be, this will be
01:03 the COP where 1.5 would have died. We will not sign our gift certificates.
01:10 Until two years ago, no COP had ever directly mentioned any of the fossil fuels as part
01:15 of efforts to tackle global warming.
01:17 That all changed in Glasgow when a commitment to phase out coal was included for the first
01:22 time.
01:23 But here in Dubai, efforts to widen the net to include oil and gas are coming unstuck.
01:30 So we've engaged in very good faith knowing that there are countries that respectfully,
01:34 I say, have a different view. Saudi Arabia, for example, is on the public record as having
01:39 a very different view.
01:40 We know where the big sticking point is and it's around energy, specifically whether we
01:44 phase down or we phase out unabated or full fossil fuels.
01:49 The COP28 is being held next door to Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter,
01:55 has always cast a long shadow over its chances of achieving a deal to phase out fossil fuels.
02:02 With just a couple of days left of negotiations, time is running out to prove the doubters
02:07 wrong.
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