The COP28 climate talks in Dubai ended in a historic deal that committed the world to a transition away from all fossil fuels for the first time.
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00:00 For the very first time in a COP, fossil fuels have been on the table as a major part of our
00:06 negotiations. And the decision that came out of this clearly embraces transitioning away
00:16 from fossil fuels in energy systems so as to achieve net zero by 2050. That is a clear,
00:23 unambiguous message on one of the most complicated issues that we face. And the first and easiest
00:30 thing that countries need to do to make this commitment real is to stop building new,
00:37 unabated coal. And we will continue to fight for that. We supported the call for clearer
00:43 language about the need to largely phase out fossil fuels. But look, given the makeup of this
00:52 195-nation entity, it's pretty clear that was more than a steep climb. And, you know,
01:01 we hardly expected certain countries to show up saying, "Oh, yeah, we're just going to turn around
01:04 and do that immediately." But they did sign on, and they are transitioning. We're a little bit
01:11 confused as to why people were clapping when there were people from the Aeosis countries who weren't
01:15 even able to get in in time for the gavel. And before people were even allowed to put up their
01:20 flags and say anything about the text, it was gaveled. And so there's a little bit of a confusion
01:24 of what this process is and if it's fair, and it's not been looking fair or transparent. I think the
01:31 UNFCCC process is broken. I think we saw so many lobbyists here. And obviously, while we are upset
01:39 at the results, there's people here who are celebrating. Somebody here has had a successful
01:45 coffin. That's the 2,000 lobbyists. And, you know, we're giving crumbs to celebrate, but it's like
01:50 asking us to celebrate flowers that will lie on our graves. You know, how do we celebrate that?
01:55 There has been some improvements from the extremely low bar draft text that was given to us
01:59 earlier this week. But the improvements have been incremental, not transformative.
02:03 There was reference to transitioning away from fossil fuels, and that signals a transition.
02:09 But the time for signaling is long past. And we were told this was going to be a historic COP,
02:16 and the outcome is far from it. It's lukewarm at best. It's not enough to acknowledge the science
02:22 and what's needed to stay below 1.5 without putting in place the concrete action.
02:27 So I am disappointed in the outcome of COP28. We're a bit torn because obviously the latest
02:34 version of the text, the one that has just been approved, is better than the one we had yesterday.
02:39 But the one we had yesterday was so bad that it's not, you know, it is easy to do better,
02:44 basically. There's been some improvement. There is a mention of transitioning away from fossil fuel.
02:49 We're not very happy because more than 100 states were actually backing the demand for
02:57 fossil fuel phase-out, which is much stronger than transitioning away. So it is weaker,
03:03 but it is the first time in the COP history that there is a call to transition away from all fossil fuels.