Thursday, December 7, was a day of rest after a week of negotiations seeking to address climate change at the 28th UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) taking place in Dubai, UAE. Negotiations resume Friday, December 8.
The conference that has convened over 190 countries began on November 30 and is set to close on December 12.
While negotiations officially paused for a scheduled "day of rest”, delegates were working towards a final COP28 agreement.
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For the first time since the Paris Agreement, countries are now tackling the enormous task of evaluating their climate progress and determining what still needs to be done to restrict global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Initial drafts reveal a multitude of options for national climate plans to consider.
Mohamed Adow, Founder and Director of Power Shift Africa, a think tank aimed to mobilise climate action in Africa shared his reflections on the negotiations so far.
1. Loss and Damage Fund (LDF)
"First thing first, the creation of the Loss and Damage Fund is a remarkable achievement and shows that the UN COP process can actually do good when people work together,” Adow said.
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In a historic move, the Loss and Damage Fund was agreed on at the opening plenary of the first day of the COP28 summit — something the global south has been demanding for decades.
Loss and damage refer to the destruction the climate crisis is already wreaking on lives, livelihoods and infrastructure.
Vulnerable and poor countries, which did little to cause the climate crisis, want to hold the biggest fossil fuel-polluting countries liable for the pain and suffering they are experiencing from climate breakdown.
But there is a huge caveat to the agreed deal, which already contained various compromises.
"A year ago, the Loss and Damage Fund wasn’t even on the agenda at COP27, and 12 months on it’s been agreed, set up and funds already pledged. With the Loss and Damage Fund established it may seem like that story is over and countries can pat themselves on the back with a job well done. But the paltry levels of finance that have been committed shows how far there is still to go,” Adow said.
The $700m so far pledged by wealthy nations most responsible for the climate emergency covers less than 0.2% of what is needed every year. Estimates for the annual cost of the damage have varied from $100bn-$580bn.
2. Negotiations on fossil fuels
Adow noted: "On fossil fuels, we already have more than 100 countries that back the call to phase out coal, oil, and gas, but some countries are trying to dodge questions about a fossil fuel phase-out and instead want to narrow the energy outcome to tripling renewables.
"Of course, ramping up renewables is vital but it’s clear this is being used as a cover to avoid calling time on the fossil fuel industry. We can’t start to heal whilst we carry on drinking fossil poison. It’s hard to know right now if all countries will agree to the fossil fuels phase-out. But I remain hopeful that sense will prevail and countries will call time on the era of dirty energy.”
A big focus this year is on how the almost 200 countries at COP28 will agree to some sort of negotiated text about fossil fuel reduction — either a phase-out or phase-down — in the global stocktake of progress on the goal of limiting temperature rise to 1.5C agreed in Paris in 2015.
Such an agreement would amount to a historic commitment, but every word of how this would be phrased is being haggled over, including whether this is a reduction or elimination of "unabated” fossil fuels — and what exactly that means.
Even though these UN talks have been going on since 1995, commitments to fossil fuel reductions have only been seriously on the agenda in the last couple of years.
The 27-member European Union, Chile, and others want the final COP28 deal to include a clear call to phase out fossil fuel use, without including language that might enable countries to heavily rely on carbon capture and removal for that goal.
3. Negotiations on adaptation
African Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have raised a red flag on the stalling progress of the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) negotiations, expressing fears that the process may not yield a concrete outcome.
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Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) aims to "enhance adaptive capacity, strengthen resilience and reduce vulnerability to climate change.
Adow stated:” Some countries are playing Ping-Pong on adaptation (building resilience to climate change effects) and are unwilling to participate in meaningful negotiations on the framework for the Global Goal on Adaptation, all the while claiming a willingness to engage. This needs to change. We cannot leave COP28 without a substantial outcome on enhancing and financing adaptation and resilience.”
4. Finance negotiations
Adow said that in finance, there is little to show. "There clearly needs to be much more climate finance delivered. Rich nations can mobilise billions for wars but choose to drag their feet when it comes to much smaller amounts to help the climate vulnerable who have been made so by the actions of the rich world.
"There will certainly need to be greater investment and technology sharing with developing regions if the decarbonisation of the global economy is going to happen fast enough. Let’s use this second week to deliver breakthrough outcomes.”
5. Pledged funding
The hosts, United Arab Emirates, said more than $83 billion has been mobilised during the first five days of the event.
The biggest single deal of COP28 saw the hosts pledge $30 billion to a new fund to invest in climate-friendly projects across the globe, with $5 billion for the Global South.
The World Bank said it aims to increase climate funding to 45% of its total lending, which equates to an increase of $9 billion annually.
The Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF) said it would invest more than $2 billion annually until 2030 in Latin America to fight climate change.
UAE banks pledged to mobilise 1 trillion dirhams, or around $270 billion, in green finance.
Green Climate Fund, the world’s largest international fund dedicated to supporting climate action in developing countries, received pledges of $3.5 billion in the opening days of the event, including fresh funding from the United States.
Charitable donors including the Bezos Earth Fund joined forces with the World Bank’s private investment arm in a climate financing venture to try to generate $11 billion in investments in developing countries.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said it will allocate $10 billion for climate investment in the Philippines between 2024 and 2029.
The UAE and several charities offered $777 million in financing for eradicating neglected tropical diseases that are expected to worsen as temperatures climb.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the UAE pledged a combined $200 million to help smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia build resilience and adapt to climate change.
The United States gave multilateral lender Climate Investment Funds (CIF) a $568 million loan to its Clean Technology Fund (CTF) to support the development of low-carbon technologies in emerging and developing economies.
Danish investment firm Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners said it would look to raise $3 billion for a new fund focused on building renewable energy projects from scratch in emerging and middle-income countries.
The writer is reporting from the 28th UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai.
This story was produced with assistance from MESHA and IDRC Eastern and Southern Africa Office for science journalists reporting on COP28.