‘Let’s finish the job’: COP28 enters its second part with fossil fuels in its sights

Delegates are seeking common ground on a formula that could appear in the final text on fossil fuels: coal, oil and gas, the main culprits of climate change.

A final text is already circulating between the delegations, but it contains many options to be decided, explains our special correspondent in Dubai Sophie Brems. For the moment, one of the sticking points still concerns fossil fuels. Several formulations are included in this text: from the most ambitious (a total exit with a date) to the least courageous (no mention of energies in the text).

“This COP is different, it has written a page of history“, insisted Sultan Al Jaber on Friday, who has already said he is determined to finish the conference on time on Tuesday, that is to say at 11 a.m. local time (8 a.m. Brussels time), which would be an achievement in given the usual delays for this annual event under the auspices of the United Nations.

Last year, the Egyptian president of the COP also urged the delegates to conclude on time, which did not prevent COP27 from going into overtime… He also called on Friday to achieve a “unprecedented result“. “We surprised the skeptics and inspired the optimists“, he congratulated himself.