A Global Cooling Pledge, methane and a record influx of industry lobbyists – the latest from CoP28

The UN CoP28 climate summit is under way in Dubai and EIA has a team of Climate campaigners on the ground from our UK and US offices.

The event is scheduled to run until next Tuesday and, as the first week draws to a close, here’s a summary of what’s been happening.

The CoP28 venue in Dubai (c) EIA

 

CoP28 began with a flurry of announcements and pledges including:

  • 123 countries agreeing to double energy efficiency and triple renewable energy
  • 62 countries (and counting!) joining the Global Cooling Pledge to reduce emissions from the cooling sector by 78 per cent by 2050, including reducing emissions from climate-damaging refrigerant gases
  • more than $1 billion in new grant funding for methane action has been mobilised since last year. The Pledge also has five new signatories, notably Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. However, it remains unclear where the money is coming from, how it will be spent and who will decide how to distribute it. In parallel, the dairy industry launched the Dairy Methane Action Alliance to increase transparency on its methane emissions. This is a step in the right direction but needs to be quickly accompanied by mitigation targets and a plan on how to deliver on them
  • Spain, Kenya and Samoa joined the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance (BOGA) and Colombia, Palau and Samoa have all endorsed the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty initiative. Colombia and Kenya became the first recipients of BOGA’s fund.

EIA UK CoP28 team in Dubai (c) EIA

A Loss and Damage Fund was agreed and operationalised on day one of the CoP and has been followed by financial contributions of $700 million – a drop in the ocean of the estimated $400 billion required.

All eyes have been on the Global Stocktake, a moment to take a long, hard look at the state of our planet and chart a better course for the future. At every CoP, the host country provides a cover text, effectively its stamp on the summit and a summary of its outcomes; this year, the UAE has indicated it will not do this and will instead use the Global Stocktake decision.

Negotiators have been battling to agree wording on a range of issues, including the fossil fuel phase down/phase-out before handing over the reins to the ministers who will work towards a final text.

Provisional totals suggest that 97,372 delegates have registered to attend CoP28, making it the biggest CoP yet.

Another record broken is for the highest number of fossil fuel lobbyists, with at least 2,456 in attendance. If they were a country delegation, they would be the third largest after Brazil (future host) and the UAE (current host). Fossil fuel lobbyists outnumber official indigenous representatives (316) by seven to one.

Cooling has officially entered the chat at CoP28 with an entire pavilion dedicated to the topic. The Montreal Protocol or the Ozone2CoolZone has been home to side events, interactive discussions and illustrators as well as free ice cream frozen by natural refrigerants. EIA is hosting three cooling-related side events at CoP28.

We will also be participating in an event organised by the European Parliament at the EU Pavilion on Sunday (10 December) on the Global Methane Pledge.

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