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This year’s United Nations climate summit wrapped up today in Dubai, as nearly 200 countries agreed upon a new global pact for tackling climate change. But while the facts of the deal are historic—it calls on the world to transition away from fossil fuels—island nations criticized the fine print as offering a “litany of loopholes.”
A lot happened outside the official negotiation rooms at the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28). More than 100,000 people attended the summit, which is more than double the number of people at any of the previous COPs.
In addition to 198 national delegations, there were hundreds of companies with a presence at COP.
“The way to think about COP [is that] it’s not a single event, it’s two events,” said Aron Cramer, president and CEO of sustainability-focused consultancy BSR. In addition to the government negotiations, “it’s a massive climate trade show,” he said.
Several elements stood out this year, behind the facts of the deal: Food and agriculture were a bigger focus, public-relations firms assumed a major role in this year’s event and businesses took an important stand on fossil fuels.
The good: Business leadership, and a focus on food systems
Food systems and agriculture were a focus of this COP, a marked shift from previous summits. In the final draft of the global stocktake, the official name for the climate deal that came out of the summit, the text urges nations to increase regenerative production of agriculture.
“There was greater nuance and awareness around food than I had ever seen before,” Ethan Soloviev, chief innovation officer at sustainability intelligence platform HowGood, told Adweek. “The inclusion of food in the global stocktake […] is a big step for food systems.”
While food industry brands like Nestlé, Unilever and Carrefour had a presence at COP, Soloviev said it was less as a brand marketing play and more focused on collaborating with NGOs, activists and data providers to push for food systems language to be acknowledged in the climate deal.
The bad: No timelines for fossil fuel phaseout
While the final draft of the global stocktake mentions fossil fuel twice, it does not include a timeline for phasing down or phasing out the use of those fuels. It seems to open the door for more fossil gas production in a line about “transition fuels.”
The text also uses some of the weakest language possible when discussing transitioning off fossil fuels.
“calls on…”
This is the crucial term here.
In UNFCCC legal jargon, this is known to mean an “invitation” or “request”
And, even more crucially, it is the *weakest* of all the various terms used for such exhortations#COP28 pic.twitter.com/KOfPIblSY5
— Leo Hickman (@LeoHickman) December 13, 2023
