The organisers of the Dubai summit have been working on a new version of the global stocktake after the first draft met with strong criticism
Asked to grade the new text, if the previous draft was an F, the analysts/campaigners ranged from B to C, writes Nina Lakhani.
Catherine Abreu, founder and Executive Director of Destination Zero, said:
“The text does give a clear signal on the need to transition away from fossil fuels in a just and equitable manner, and calls on parties to begin doing that. In this critical decade, that being said, it does not yet represent the highest level of ambition outcome that we were looking forward to here at.
“The text does give some indication of the level of finance required to enable the energy transition, it also gives some acknowledgement of the fact that countries will be moving in this energy transition at different paces. However, it does not yet give us a clear enough sense of who needs to be taking the lead in the energy transition, and that is the developed countries particularly those that are legacy fossil fuel producers. And it should be clearer on who provides the necessary finance for the energy transition, and again that money needs to be coming from developed countries.”
“A Cop flooded by more than 2,400 fossil fuel lobbyists and overseen by a fossil fuel executive delivered a text that might contain some key words, but on closer inspection is littered with their polluting rubbish, false solutions, and dangerous distractions that guarantee the continuation of the fossil fuel era. The United States, UK, EU, Norway, and others self-proclaim themselves climate ‘champions’, but yet again are twisting the outcomes of these talks so they don’t have to wean themselves off their fossil fuel addiction. They have bullied and blocked efforts to deliver the public finance, technology, and capacity we need to actually be able to deliver a just fossil fuel phaseout, and are yet again orchestrating their great escape from having to do their fair share by ripping equity out of the text.”
“This text truly represents the paradox that is Cop28. On the one hand we’ve seen the most visible ever capture of the process by oil and gas lobbyists, and on the other hand, you’ve seen a record momentum to finally tackle the root cause.
We see in the text the need to transition away from fossil fuels, which is a significant improvement from the last text, on the other hand, opening the door to not only dangerous technological distractions like blue hydrogen, nuclear, but the reference to traditional fuels being acceptable, which is a myth, being promoted by the LNG industry and is not grounded in science.”
