COP28 Sends Clear Message: Twilight for Fossil Fuels

WASHINGTON — Global climate talks concluded in Dubai with an agreement to triple renewable energy, double the pace of energy-efficiency gains, phase-out fossil fuels, and end deforestation and forest degradation as part of a larger long-term strategy to steadily reduce the production and use of coal, gas and oil.

Manish Bapna, president and CEO of NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), made the following statement:

“The world has spoken with one voice and the message is clear: it’s twilight for the fossil fuel era. This is a call to action that heralds an irreversible pivot from the dirty energy of the past and charts the course toward a more equitable clean energy future.

“It’s time now to turn global ambition into climate action—and there’s not a moment to lose.

“Tripling renewable energy and doubling the pace of energy-efficiency gains will speed that shift. The new fund to address climate loss and damage will begin to help vulnerable people paying a price they can’t afford for a crisis they didn’t cause.

“Not all went well in Dubai. It’s the hottest year on record and an industry hellbent on making things worse packed the halls with an army of lobbyists. Some dangerous loopholes for a destructive industry raise the risk of climate catastrophe. 

“Leaders from more than 190 countries set their differences aside to make clear that the world is not hitched to fossil fuel hazard and harm—yet, a handful of oil and gas producing nations blocked stronger phase-out language. They are whistling past the fossil fuel graveyard. We must do better than this. 

““Now every nation must strengthen its climate action plans by 2025 to bring global commitments in line with what’s needed to avert the worst of rising seas, species collapse, withering drought, lethal heat waves and raging wildfires, storms and floods. And rich nations must deliver and ramp up their climate finance to support poorer countries in an equitable and climate-resilient energy transition.

“Coming out of this, in the U.S., the nation’s resources must be part of the climate fix, not the problem. The country can no longer support projects that lock future generations into decades more dependence on the dirty energy that is driving the climate crisis. That means immediately reining in the massive climate and equity impacts of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports and infrastructure, ending wasteful taxpayer handouts for coal, gas and oil, and halting the expansion of fossil fuel production on public lands and in federal oceans.”