Keys to the ‘Global Balance’, a new agreement adopted by the climate summit

Nearly 200 countries adopted climate summit of Dubai an agreement that different world leaders described as “historical” since, with nuances, it guides the world to begin to leave behind the fossil fuels.

These are some of the keys to understanding the ‘Global Balance’ and what it implies:

Global stocktaking

The text is the first ‘Global Balance’ which has been done since the Paris Agreement. It reviews the climate action efforts that countries have carried out since 2015 and concludes with an increase in commitments to achieve the objectives adopted in the French capital: ensuring that global warming does not exceed one and a half degrees by the end of this century.

Consensus

The agreement was formally adopted in the COP28 plenary session by consensus, which does not mean unanimity. Although until the last moment there was still no certainty that any country was going to overthrow it – all eyes were on Saudi Arabia, which had positioned itself as the main opposition to the text -, in the end no one objected.

Concessions

By requiring consensus to move forward, the negotiations of the decisions adopted at climate summits require a certain flexibility on the part of the countries, as well as a whole tactical deployment of alliances, conversations to convince other blocks of countries and games with the language.

In the Global Balance, the tug of war was clearly seen around several terms: one, “phase out” (in Spanish, progressive elimination) and, another, “unabated” (without mitigation techniques).

The negotiations were changing the words to take the form that the group of countries represented at COP28 could take, although this disappointed some of the countries that demanded a more precise vocabulary, and civil society.

Emissions reduction goal

The agreement includes the decarbonization goals recommended by the scientific community to ensure a habitable future for the entire planet: reducing emissions by at least one 43% by 2030 and in a 6% by 2035 compared to 2019 levels, in order to achieve carbon neutrality in 2050.

Different options

To achieve these objectives, the text leaves the formula to achieve these emissions reductions to the countries’ choice. “fast, deep and sustained”in line with what science says and according to your national circumstances, pathways and approaches, and offers a series of options.

The beginning of the end of fossil fuels?

Among the measures that it asks of countries, they are urged to begin a transition so that their energy systems are detached from fossil fuels, “in a fair, orderly and equitable manner” and in “this critical decade.”

Low carbon technologies

The agreement also proposes to accelerate low or zero emissions technologies, including “renewable, nuclear and carbon capture and storage (CCS), particularly in sectors that are difficult to decarbonize, as well as the production of low-emission hydrogen.”

Reduce carbon

On the other hand, it calls for accelerating efforts to progressively reduce the use of coal-based energy without mitigation systems (here the term was introduced “unabated”).

End inefficient subsidies

Countries are asked to phase out subsidies as soon as possible “inefficient” to fossil fuelss “that do not address energy poverty or just transitions.”

Three times as renewable and twice as efficient

It also includes the goals of tripling renewable energy capacity globally and doubling the global average annual rate of improvement in energy efficiency by 2030.

“Transitional fuels”

One of the most criticized aspects of the text has been that it recognizes the role of transition fuels – gas is considered by many to be the fuel of the transition – to facilitate the energy transition while guaranteeing energy security.