Another U.N. Climate Change Conference has come and is supposed to be gone, with today officially the final day of COP 28 in Dubai. But it appears to be far from finished, with talks now extended as negotiations reach boiling point.
While COPs often feel like one big blur, each has its distinct personality — much like toddlers. Bear with me. Like toddlers, they’re a work in progress: COPs come up with initiatives that grow incrementally each year and need nurturing. And like toddlers, they make their presence known, even when there’s not much substance to the babbling. Nevertheless, we’re proud of their hard-fought achievements. Small steps are big deals. But like any worried parent or climate activist, we wonder if those achievements will be good enough.
OK, enough childish analogies. Let’s get down to it. Will COP 28 achieve what it set out to do? That of course depends on your perspective. At the time of writing, the battle royale over fossil fuels seems to have dealt a blow to climate advocates who wanted a “phaseout” of the greenhouse gas-emitting pollutants. Even “phase down” seems to have lost out to the watered-down “reducing” fossil fuel consumption and production. Each word in such a delicate, consensus-driven negotiation is freighted with meaning.
About the author
Anna Gawel
Anna Gawel is the Managing Editor of Devex. She previously worked as the managing editor of The Washington Diplomat, the flagship publication of D.C.’s diplomatic community. She’s had hundreds of articles published on world affairs, U.S. foreign policy, politics, security, trade, travel and the arts on topics ranging from the impact of State Department budget cuts to Caribbean efforts to fight climate change. She was also a broadcast producer and digital editor at WTOP News and host of the Global 360 podcast. She holds a journalism degree from the University of Maryland in College Park.
