Countries reach historic agreement to transition from fossil fuels at COP28

After weeks of negotiations at the COP28 climate summit, nations have signed a deal to transition away from fossil fuels and not “phase it out”.

Ahmed Al-Jaber, the president of COP28, disclosed this on Tuesday in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, after talks on fossil fuel phase out went into an overtime.

Al-Jaber said it was agreed that fossil fuels would not be phased out totally as proposed by most governments, but called on countries to “transition away”.

This is the first time in the history of COP that nations have agreed on a concerted move away from oil, gas and coal.

The deal recognises the need for deep, fast and sustained reductions of fossil fuels if humanity is to limit temperature rise to 1.5C.

“Together we have confronted realities and we have set the world in the right direction,” Al-Jaber said.

Also speaking, Espen Eide, Norway’s climate minister, said fossil fuels were “the elephant in the room” at the summit.