Know better. Do better.

The COP28 climate talks ended with a first: After nearly three decades, countries finally agreed to support moving the global economy away from fossil fuels.

Specifically, they called for “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner … so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science”.

The question now is: Do they mean it? And if so, can they achieve it?

Some early indications - including a lack of finance to do the job - are worrying.

Just hours after the end of the summit, Brazil put on the auction block 603 oil and gas concessions, some of them in the Amazon, with Shell, Chevron and Brazil state oil company Petrobras snapping up a significant share.

That raises real questions about Brazil’s commitment to pull the plug on fossil fuels anytime soon, activists told correspondent Andre Cabette Fabio.

In Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said the COP28 deal, which his country backed, would not limit his export-leading nation’s ability to sell its oil.

“The issue of immediate and gradual disposal (of fossil fuels) has been buried,” he told Saudi-owned television network Al Arabiya.

Workers, cows and palm oil

Still, there are positive signals too.

The summit, for instance, saw progress in making the transition away from fossil fuels fairer for those who depend on them for jobs, something key to overcoming opposition to the energy switch and making sure workers are not left behind.

The U.N.’s “Just Transition Work Programme”, agreed at COP28, could lay the groundwork for solid help for workers and communities hit by green changes, including through retraining and social support systems, writes deputy climate editor Megan Rowling.

The world’s main palm oil industry watchdog, meanwhile, soon to mark 20 years since its creation, is expanding its focus beyond cutting deforestation to include measures to help its members cut climate changing-emissions, correspondent Michael Taylor found.

And Brazil, even as it sells new oil concessions, is looking to halt the damage being done to the Amazon and other crucial natural carbon sinks by raising cash to restore exhausted pasture and farmland – one way to potentially stem further forest losses.

1.5C still in sight?

Many scientists, negotiators and activists warn that the COP28 decision, with no enforcement mechanisms, no clear timelines for action and insufficient finance for poorer nations, is unlikely to hold the world to the relatively ‘safe’ limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming.

“We have made an incremental advancement over business-as-usual when what we really needed is an exponential step-change in our actions and support,” said Anne Rasmussen, the lead negotiator at COP28 for the Pacific island nation of Samoa, one of many in the region threatened by rising seas.

U.N. climate chief Simon Stiell warned the deal left the world on track for just under 3C (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming this century, which “still equates to massive human suffering”.

But others said COP28’s qualified step away from fossil fuels was just that – a first but critical step.

When it comes to commitments to transition away from fossil fuels, “the genie is never going back in the bottle,” said Mohamed Adow, of Power Shift Africa. “Future COPs will only turn the screw even more on dirty energy.”

Thanks for reading this year. If you’re looking to catch up on anything you might have missed, you can see all of our COP28 coverage here. We’re taking a break next week but will be back in early 2024.

Take care,

Laurie