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A positive outcome seemed so far away. On 13 December, the Conference of the Parties on Climate Change 2023, or COP28, came to a close in Dubai. The negotiations, which lasted two weeks, produced a final agreement that some are already describing as "historic". While the final text - an initial version of which had been rejected on the 11 December by the participating countries - makes no mention of an exit from fossil fuels, as desired by many countries, it nevertheless calls for a "transition away from fossil fuels [...] by accelerating action in this crucial decade, in order to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050."
The United Nations gathering got off to a bad start. The decision to hold the annual climate summit under the aegis of one of the world's biggest oil exporters, and to entrust its presidency to Sultan Al-Jaber, an Emirati minister who is also CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), had already brought its share of controversy.
A record number of accredited fossil fuel lobbyists, Al-Jaber's dubious comments on the need to phase out fossil fuels, and the excessively lax language of the final text... The victory achieved at the end of COP28 still leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.
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