Looming over the 28th UN Climate Conference (COP28) is whether governments will finally heed the calls, that grow stronger by the day, to phase out fossil fuels and deliver on climate justice. While the causes and consequences of climate change have never been felt so deeply, the solutions have never been more in reach. The question is no longer how but when. Those serious about a livable planet have the tools needed to deliver the climate action needed: COP28 must agree to end the fossil fuel era.
What we need from COP28 for success:
- For the Paris Agreement warming limit to be kept within reach, the COP28 decision text must hold an uncompromised commitment to a just and rapid phase out of all fossil fuels, with an immediate end to new coal, oil and gas.
- The Global Stocktake must conclude with outcomes that kick-start transformative action across the board to limit temperatures to 1.5ºC and respond to increasing climate impacts with justice.
- A credible finance package that responds to growing needs is essential. It must include the launch of a new Loss and Damage Fund, and move us closer to making polluters pay for the destruction and harm they have caused.
Briefing on Greenpeace COP28 demands.
Kaisa Kosonen, Head of the Greenpeace COP28 delegation said: "This is truly a unique moment in time. Solutions are now here, bigger and cheaper than ever before, ready to replace fossil fuels and bring us greater security. But it won't happen fast enough unless governments regulate oil, coal and gas out of the way. COP28 can be the turning point, when governments act on the science, commit to protecting their own citizens, and agree to make fossil fuels history."
Ghiwa Nakat, Executive Director, Greenpeace MENA, said: "In yet another year of record temperatures, delaying climate action would be catastrophic for the communities for whom navigating the impacts of the climate crisis is a daily reality. The COP28 Presidency stated that reducing fossil fuels is both inevitable and essential, but we now need to see actions that support what we already know to be necessary – a total phase out of fossil fuels. We need to take this ambition seriously and agree to the equitable phaseout of all fossil fuels including oil, gas and coal – and for the worst fossil fuel polluters to be held responsible for the crisis they have caused.
"People with the least resources to defend themselves are immersed in a constant struggle for survival: farmers seeing their harvests fail, desert nomads whose oases are disappearing, Ahwari women in the marshlands of Southern Iraq whose livelihoods have been devastated by drought. Every passing day without real change becomes a sentence of hardship or even death for these communities. Ending this suffering is the essence of climate justice."
