UAE Consensus delivers 'landmark' deal to transition away from fossil fuels

COP28 agreement

Governments have called upon each other to accelerate the "transition away" from fossil fuels this decade, as the COP28 Climate Summit in Dubai drew towards a dramatic close this morning with the adoption of an historic new deal that observers said would herald the beginning of the end of the fossil fuel era.

The final deal on the crucial Global Stocktake text was rapidly gavelled through in a plenary meeting this morning by COP28 president Sultan Al Jaber, who named the agreement "the UAE Consensus".  The plenary took place just a few hours after an updated draft text was released by the UAE Presidency, following more than 36 hours of tense closed door talks that sought to broker a compromise agreement. A previous version of the text had been widely criticised by the coalition of nations seeking a more ambitious deal, who argued it failed to provide a sufficiently robust signal that fossil f...