DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Over 14 days of U.N. climate talks, delegates from nearly 200 countries debated, made proposals, lobbed criticisms and did their best to convince each other how best to stop the planet from warming at a dangerous pace.
Much of the discussion at COP28, hosted by the United Arab Emirates, was technical, on subjects ranging from climate science to sustainable development. But ultimately the summit was about people— tens of thousands who came to have their voices heard. Here is a sampling of quotes that tell the story.
On the first day of the summit, al-Jaber denied a BBC report that said the oil-rich United Arab Emirates planned to make deals for oil and renewable energies during the negotiations. Al-Jaber runs both the UAE’s national oil company and a renewable energy firm. Leading up to the talks, many environmentalists and even politicians around the world argued that somebody from the oil industry, which is responsible for much of the emissions that cause climate change, shouldn’t be overseeing a climate summit.
Adow was referring to a fund to help poor countries being hammered by the extremes of climate change, such as floods, droughts and hurricanes. The fund was established on the first day of the summit after it was approved but not finalized last year. While there are many questions long term — namely how much will rich countries contribute? — its approval underscored that the world community believes developed nations, which are most responsible for climate change, have a moral imperative to help countries being severely affected.
During the two weeks of negotiations, the war between Israel and Hamas cast a long shadow over the event. Several world leaders expressed solidarity with Palestinians and there were several small pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
Fifty oil and gas companies said they would sharply reduce emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, across their operations by 2030. While celebrated by some climate experts, others noted that the pledge was voluntary, so not enforceable, and argued that it allowed the industry to simply continue its core business of drilling, extraction and export of oil.
For the first time in its history, the climate talks included health as one of its thematic days. As temperatures have crept up and extreme weather events have intensified, researchers are finding links between climate change and negative impacts on human health, including heat stroke, breathing problems and infectious diseases.
The comments had the effect of a thunderclap. For environmentalists who opposed al-Jaber being COP28 president, it confirmed their narrative that an oil executive had no interest in leading the world toward less fossil fuel use. In a testy news conference the next day, al-Jaber said he had been taken out of context.
As negotiators settled into the second week of the talks, scientists announced that November had been the sixth month in a row of record temperatures, an ominous reminder of how quickly the Earth is warming. Put another way, the discussions at COP28 had real world implications, something that many delegates mentioned.
While protests were allowed, as the tightly controlled UAE leadership had promised, there were so many restrictions that demonstrators said they struggled to be heard.
Robinson was speaking about the interests of oil and gas when it was reported that OPEC, the oil cartel, had written to member countries asking that they reject any agreement around phasing out fossil fuels.
Silk was talking about a draft agreement that he and numerous others said had weak language on fossil fuels. The strong opposition to the initial draft would push delegates to negotiate for another two days.
For the first time in 28 years of climate talks, delegates said in plain language that the world needed to transition away from fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas. The upshot of that was a sharp ramping up of green energies like wind and solar. It will take years to judge what impact the decision has, but it has sent a clear message to the world about the need to radically shift its energy systems.
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