At the end of the COP28 UN Climate Conference in Dubai, European Union negotiators succeeded, with partners from around the world, to keep alive the possibility of delivering on the commitment in the Paris Agreement to limit global average temperature increase to 1.5 Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
At COP28, the first Global Stocktake was concluded on 12 December 2023, a process which took stock on where the world stands on climate action and that decided on the ways forward to reach the Paris Agreement and stay below 1.5 C. On the first day of COP28, a historic decision was made with the operationalization of the Loss and Damage Fund for vulnerable countries with $700m, where the EU and its Member States have contributed more than €400 million, over two thirds of the initial funding pledges.
For the first time in a COP outcome (called “UAE Consensus”), the parties are invited to “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade, so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science”. The outcome further calls to triple the production of renewable energies and double energy efficiency by 2030 and accelerate efforts towards the phase-down of unabated coal power and phase out of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies (see full text attached).
President von der Leyen applauded the decision on increasing renewable energy production and energy efficiency as well as the decision to operationalise the new loss and damage fund. Commissioner Hoekstra highlighted that this historic decision marks the beginning of the end of fossil fuels. Teresa Ribera, Vice-President of the Government of Spain and Minister for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, and co-leader of the EU delegation, congratulated the outcome but also told the summit, in response to criticism from Small Island States, notably Samoa, ”that climate justice still needs our engagement and our work”.
Just Transition Work Programme
In the final hours of the COP-28 climate conference, the first Just Transition Work Programme was adopted. Parties agreed on an outcome very quickly, after the decision to start negotiations for a Just Transition Work Programme (JTWP) was adopted only last year at COP-27 in Sharm-el-Sheikh.
One of the most contentious issues during the negotiations was the scope of the JTWP defining the key topics that should be addressed under just transition.
Source: European Commission | Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion (https://shortur.at/aSYZ6)