COP28 Focuses on 31-Word Proposal for Global Stocktake in Final Hours

Climate change negotiators are focusing on a 31-word draft sentence on the last day of COP28 that will finalize the future of fossil fuel issues. 

The new draft of the global stocktake-the key text being agreed at COP28-suggests cutting down the use of fossil fuel, which would make it the first such commitment at a global level. 

The draft includes the following: "reducing both consumption and production of fossil fuels in a just, orderly and equitable manner so as to achieve net zero by, before or around 2050 in keeping with the science."

The UAE's COP28 Presidency described this draft as 'a huge step forward'.

Negotiations are set to extend to the final hours of the COP28 summit because various key players are demanding the use of tougher language, such as including the phrase 'phase-out of fossil fuels'.

Small island states are only willing to sign the document if it includes stronger commitments to the phase-out.

EU countries are also demanding tougher language as Germany believes that the current draft acknowledges that fossil fuels will remain in the future. 

Nonetheless, the text is also described as a historic text because it is the first text in the climate change summit that acknowledges that the use of fossil fuels needs to be reduced. 

Image source: @cop28uaeofficial