Cop28 live: Countdown to end of summit statement as battle rages over fate of fossil fuels

Cop28 director-general Majid Al Suwaidi has defended the release of Monday’s draft agreement text which sparked a major backlash, saying it was always intended to “spark conversations”.

He said the presidency, held by the United Arab Emirates, now knew more about countries’ “red lines”, and would draft another text to include “all the elements we need for a comprehensive plan to 2030”.

“At this Cop we are trying to do something that has never been done before, something historic … Part of this is to include fossil fuels in the text. If we can, that would be historic,” he said.

Referring to the state of negotiations, which appeared to have some way to go even after the 11am deadline for the end of talks passed on Tuesday morning, he said: “Many issues remain open and that is normal at this stage.”

He said Monday’s draft was meant to be a starting point for discussions, “and that’s what’s happened”. Talks then went on until 2am at night, and will resume today.

“By releasing our first draft of the text, we got parties to come to us quickly with those red lines,” he said.

“We spent last night talking, taking in that feedback and that has put us in the position to draft a new text.”

Expressing disappointment over the current Cop28 draft, a government spokesperson told The Independent that it “does not go far enough”.

“The UK position is clear – there must be a phase out of unabated fossil fuels to meet our climate goals.

“The UK is working with all parties and will continue to push for an ambitious outcome at COP28 that keeps 1.5 degrees in reach.”

The next draft of the final Cop28 agreement is not expected until 6pm local time (2pm GMT), sources close to the negotiations told The Independent.

The Dubai summit is now in overtime after the official deadline of 11am Tuesday came and went.

A draft text released on Monday night outraged dozens of countries over the weak language on fossil fuels and lack of any mention at all of oil and gas.

Cop28 director general Majid Al Suwaidi said on Tuesday the summit’s presidency wanted to include a “historic” mention on the future of fossil fuels in the next draft text for a possible deal, but it was up to the almost 200 nations at the talks.

“At this Cop we are trying to do something that has never been done before, something historic … Part of this is to include fossil fuels in the text. If we can, that would be historic,” he told reporters.

More than 100 countries at the Cop28 climate summit in Dubai have agreed to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030 – one of the least controversial commitments floated at the conference.

But they have given little detail on how they can make an industry running flat out go that much faster.

“It is realistic, but there are elements that need to be solved; permitting, leases, grid connections,” Anders Opedal, chief executive of Norway’s Equinor, a major renewable energy developer, told Reuters.

Renewable energy is key to meeting the 2015 Paris climate agreement to limit global warming. And while renewables are already expanding fast, this latest goal would require solar and wind power deployments to speed up a lot.

The tripling target would bring global renewable energy capacity to at least 11,000 gigawatts (GW) in just six years – more than 20 per cent higher than current projections from BloombergNEF of around 9,000 GW by that time.

That would mean pumping up investment in renewables, which the International Energy Agency (IEA) says hit $600bn globally last year, at a time some investors are retreating due to higher borrowing costs.

Almost every day at Cop28, this year’s annual United Nations climate summit, an activist dons a costume of a dugong — a manatee-like creature that forages for seagrass in warm, shallow areas of the Indian and Pacific oceans.

The costume highlights the contrasts of climate talks marked by both spectacle and urgency, at a site that cost billions of dollars to erect, in what was once just an empty desert area of the oil-rich host country, the United Arab Emirates.

For nearly two weeks, Expo City has been the site of discussions about climate change and how to confront it. Between the meetings among thousands of delegates, there is a lot for them, and other attendees, to look at as they go from place to place.

The two-week United Nations gathering in Dubai was scheduled to end at 11am local time, according to the United Arab Emirates Cop president Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber.

Climate summits usually overrun but release of the latest draft of the final agreement on Monday evening put paid to any hopes that Cop28 might buck this trend.

Our climate correspondents Louise Boyle and Stuti Mishra report from Cop28 in Dubai:

The United Arab Emirates is conducting a mass trial of nearly 90 prisoners on terrorism charges as it hosts the United Nations‘ Cop28 climate summit, including one man whose case was highlighted by demonstrators at the negotiations, an activist organisation reported Monday.

Emirati authorities did not immediately respond to questions over the report by the Emirates Detainees Advocacy Center, a group run by Emirati Hamad al-Shamsi, who lives in exile in Istanbul after being named on a terrorism list by the UAE himself. The state-run WAM news agency also has not run a report on the trial.

“This draft is disappointing and does not go far enough,” said a government spokesperson, according to The Times’s environment editor Adam Vaughan.

“The UK position is clear – there must be a phase out of unabated fossil fuels to meet our climate goals.”

As Cop28 comes to an end, green tech entrepreneur Magnus Willner reveals what he learned as a first-time delegate – and how the unlikeliest barrier to fighting climate change is our global consulting firms.