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Cop28: ‘failure is not an option,’ says summit president – as it happened [1]

['Jonathan Watts', 'Natalie Hanman']

Date: 2023-12-10

13h ago 07.44 EST UK food tsar: ‘Stand up to the big food companies’ Fiona Harvey Henry Dimbleby, UK food tsar, is at Cop28 to talk about global food systems. He told us governments would need to step up, and stand up to the big food companies. “In the end, what you need is regulation.” He said food had been largely ignored at previous Cops, including Cop26 in Glasgow in 2021, so it was good to see the issue highlighted in Dubai, but governments were still long on talk and short on action. “We need to look at this globally, at how we share resources such as land and how to create incentives to shape a food system that feeds the world, sequesters carbon and restores biodiversity.” Henry Dimbleby, UK food tsar, who attended Cop28 to talk about global food systems. Photograph: Fiona Harvey

Updated at 07.51 EST

13h ago 07.32 EST Human Rights Day unease at restrictions on protest My colleague Nina Lakhani reports civil society groups have been extremely frustrated at the restrictions placed on public protest at Cop28 particularly in relation to calling out human rights violations in the UAE and Palestine. Still, every day, frontline activists have done small actions calling for a cease fire in Gaza. “There is no climate justice without human rights,” has been the rallying call. Today the protest is also calling for the release of human rights and environmental defenders across the world including British Egyptian campaigner Alaa Abd el-Fattah who is imprisoned in Egypt. United Nations Climate Change Conference COP28 in Dubai

Climate activists protest during the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP28 in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, 10 December 2023. Photograph: Amr Alfiky/Reuters Others noted that today is the 75th anniversary of the universal declaration human rights. Asad Rehman, director of War on Want, said: “Our struggle for human rights is connected to all movements and struggles for economic justice, for social justice and gender justice. Our message to the people negotiating is that we have a different vision of the world because we believe in the power of the people to transform this society into one that is fair and just.” Earlier, the climate campaign group 350.0rg disrupted the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) at their youth event at Cop28. In a statement, the group urged organisers to include vulnerable communities and campaigners in the discussion on how to address global heating: “Civil society and communities most impacted by the climate crisis must be at the forefront of conversations in spaces like Cop28 and it’s imperative we have the freedom to publicly critique government policy, protest and lobby for climate justice”

Updated at 10.50 EST

13h ago 07.11 EST Vulnerable countries concerned about ‘weak’ adaptation text Damian Carrington Delegates from vulnerable countries are very concerned about the weak progress being made at Cop28 on adaptation i.e. the plans and funding desperately needed to protect people from the escalating impacts of the climate crisis. The UN Environment Programme said in November that $215bn - $387bn a year is needed - in 2021, but just $21bn was provided. (See also earlier posts today from Nina Lakhani and a guest post from Mohamed Adow.) Sandeep Chamling Rai, at WWF: “Vulnerable communities desperately need more finance to build resilience to the impacts of the climate crisis. However the text only reiterates the longstanding call for developed countries to double adaptation finance without providing a clear roadmap to deliver it.” “The text is also missing concrete global targets. It is also concerning to see the target to protect 30% of land by 2030 now missing. Nature is an ally in limiting the impacts of the climate crisis and that must be recognised and acted on.” Obed Koringo, based in Nairobi for CARE Denmark: “It is disappointing to see that negotiations on adaptation are hurtling towards a damaging global failure. We are afraid that it will have catastrophic consequences for communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis, especially in Africa.” “Developed countries have committed to at least double adaptation finance by 2025 - a detailed roadmap is the only way to achieve this. This must set out what individual developed countries plan to provide by 2025 and how this adds up to $40 billion annually. “Failure to invest in adaptation, including early warning systems, flood defences and drought-resistant crops, will only increase the costs of loss and damage in the long run.” Simon Evans, at Carbon Brief, has tweeted details of the latest draft text: #COP28 text on global goal on adaptation



➡️no brackets + only 3 options, on principles

➡️it's very heavily qualitative, not quantitative

➡️only vague link to finance

➡️only governance targets are quantitative

➡️starts 2yr work prog on progress indicatorshttps://t.co/NtOc6QPYfw pic.twitter.com/wQ4MygGJiE — Simon Evans (@DrSimEvans) December 10, 2023

Updated at 10.50 EST

14h ago 06.34 EST Cop28 president: ‘The time has come for us to switch gears’ The Cop28 president Sultan Al Jaber is speaking in a media scrum that includes my colleague Fiona Harvey. She says he is calling for consensus on two key issues: fossil fuels and financing for a just transition. “The time has come for us to switch gears,” Al Jaber said. “We need text agreed by everyone on greenhouse gases. That is a point I will keep pressure on …. None of this is surprise. That is how this process works. It boils down to the need for all parties to come to terms (with the fact) that we will deliver the highest ambition. All parties should come to terms with this fact.”

Updated at 11.03 EST

14h ago 06.15 EST Hello everyone. This is Jonathan Watts taking over the liveblog from my colleague Natalie Hanman. With just over two days remaining of the official schedule, Cop28 is now immersed in the nitty gritty of the negotiations. This is the part that will determine whether Dubai is a success or a failure. There is a lot of work to do. The texts are riddled with brackets denoting disagreements and unresolved alternatives, including on the crunch question of whether to phase out, phase down or otherwise come to terms with the root cause of climate breakdown: fossil fuels. Thirty one years after the Earth Summit that launched these discussions, isn’t it astounding that it has taken until now to get to this fundamental issue? Feel free to email me at [email protected] with comments and suggestions on this or anything else.



14h ago 06.03 EST Thank you for reading the liveblog. I am now handing over to Jonathan Watts ([email protected]). Here’s a brief summary of developments so far today: The Cop Presidency is now said to be preparing a final package for delegates, at a crunch point for Cop28, with only two and a half official days of negotiations left. A draft text on the global goal on adaptation was published. It has been described as “disappointing” and “weak”. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation published the first instalment in its roadmap on reforming food and farming. Thin on detail, the report is not enough to get us off the “high-pollution, high-fossil-fuel, high-hunger track we are on”, said one expert. A spokesperson from the bloc of Like Minded Developing Countries told the Guardian that any fossil fuel phase out target must be fully financed and centred on the equity principles enshrined in the climate convention and the 2015 Paris agreement.



14h ago 05.49 EST Damian Carrington Reforming the world’s food systems will be a key step in limiting global temperature rises, the UN said on Sunday. Photograph: Jonathan Kirn/Getty Images Reaction is coming in to the UN FAO’s first instalment of a roadmap towards farming that can feed the world while not driving global heating past 1.5C. You can read Fiona Harvey’s news story on the road map here. Craig Hanson, Managing Director of Programs, World Resources Institute: “How to feed the planet by 2050 without destroying it in the process is one of the grand challenges of our time. This roadmap is a welcome reminder that the answer involves sustainably boosting crop and livestock yields, reducing food loss and waste and shifting diets – all amidst a changing climate.” “Rich countries will need to nudge people toward less meat-centric diets, and advance technologies and practices to drive down agricultural emissions. Low-income countries will need to sustainably boost crop and livestock productivity. Smallholder farmers will need far more assistance to adapt to extreme weather. And all these changes will need to happen without further sacrificing forests for agriculture.” Emile Frison, member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems: “Laying out a plan to eliminate extreme hunger and the third of greenhouse gas emissions from food systems is not an easy task. This roadmap puts a huge emphasis on incremental improvements to the current industrial food system – but this is a flawed system that is wrecking nature, polluting the environment, and starving millions of people. These efficiency-first proposals are unlikely to be enough. The next stage will need to go much further in … tackling the massive power inequalities imposed by the handful of companies that define what we grow and eat.” Sophia Murphy, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy: “FAO’s roadmap offers a welcome focus on the right to food in the cacophony of food interests that have descended on COP. The report mentions a host of critical issues, including farm income, farm worker rights and women’s empowerment. Disappointingly, the report neglects to call on big agricultural companies to make real emissions reductions, especially in rich countries where cutting methane and nitrous oxide emissions from industrial animal operations is a low-hanging fruit.” Appolinaire Djikeng, International Livestock Research Institute: “The [FAO] strategy makes valuable and pragmatic recommendations for increasing climate finance to help improve the productivity of livestock systems in low-income countries. This would strengthen a sector that provides vital and scarce sources of high quality nutrition and rural livelihoods for almost two billion people. A new African narrative for livestock is needed to fully differentiate the needs and challenges facing small-scale producers from the industrialised systems in the Global North.”



15h ago 05.23 EST Developing countries bloc say fossil fuel phaseout must be fully financed and fair Nina Lakhani A spokesperson from a negotiating bloc that represents more than half the world’s populationsaid that any fossil fuel phase-out target must be fully financed and centred on the equity principles enshrined in the climate convention and the 2015 Paris agreement. “As a group we want to see the developed countries taking the lead on mitigation. In each session they are pushing and pressuring developing countries to do more and more, without providing the means of implementation, without accepting that a phase out has to be differentiated to be fair and equitable – and while they are still expanding fossil fuel production,” said Diego Pacheco, a Bolivian negotiator and spokesperson for the bloc of Like Minded Developing Countries (LMDC). The bloc of 20 nations – which includes India, China, Saudi Arabia, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Syria, Sudan and Vietnam – are politically, socially and economically diverse but like minded in terms of insisting that international climate action respect the convention and the Paris Agreement, particularly in relation to the principle of equity and Common But Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR) enshrined in the Paris agreement and the UNFCCC. Developing countries have for years called out wealthier countries for cherrypicking from the convention, Paris Agreement and the IPCC reports. According to Pacheco, global emission reduction targets should take into account CBDR and equity, but developing countries face a constant fight to get these core elements into the text. “The Paris agreement is based on a bottom-up approach, so each country will address issues according to their own national circumstances. The only acceptable qualifier would be a fossil fuel phase out financed by developed countries, based on equity and CBDR,” said Pacheco. In 2021, India and China were blamed by the US, UK and other developed countries for watering down the historic agreement to phase down – rather than phase out – coal at Cop26. The UK and US have already moved away from coal, but continue to expand oil and gas production. India, the world’s most populous country (1.4bn) and the fifth largest economy, is the driver behind equitable access to carbon space, pushing for historic CO2 contributions to be taken into account in any discussion about phase out and mitigation. Meena Raman, a climate policy expert and head of programmes at the Third World Network (TWN), said: “Many countries including India are energy poor, and while they are actively promoting solar and other renewable energies, they need more time and finance to transition away from coal, that is the reality. We need to be honest about what countries need to implement mitigation – finance, capacity building, technology – so they can achieve their NDCs and keep the hope of 1.5 alive, adapt to climate change and still meet the basic needs of their people. Otherwise any new target will just be playing to the gallery.” The US is this year’s number one producer of oil and gas, and the number one exporter of gas and petroleum products. A recent report by Oil Change International found that five countries – UK, US, Norway, Canada and Australia – account for more than half the planned oil and gas expansion between now and 2050. Meanwhile civil society groups are warning that the US, UK and other allied developed economies appear to be embracing fossil fuel phase out language, while simultaneously blocking fair climate finance and pushing to erase any reference to equity and just transition from the final text. Rachel Rose Jackson from Corporate Accountability said: “The stage is set for the US to save the day again while blaming global south countries simply for demanding equity and fairness. At Cop28 the US is continuing its legacy of hocus pocus.”

Updated at 06.07 EST

15h ago 05.16 EST Oliver Milman People walk near al Wasl Dome in Dubai. Photograph: Ali Haider/EPA Machines to magic carbon out of the air, artificial intelligence, indoor vertical farms to grow food for our escape to Mars, and even solar-powered “responsible” yachts: the Cop28 climate summit in Dubai has been festooned with the promise of technological fixes for worsening global heating and ecological breakdown, writes Oliver Milman. But this fixation has alarmed some scientists and climate activists, who warn that technologies are being used to distract from the primary task of stopping fossil fuels being burned. Total current technology-based CO 2 removal, excluding nature-based means such as planting new forests, removes just 0.01m tonnes of CO 2 , according to recent research, which is more than a million times smaller than current fossil fuel CO 2 emissions. Despite its small scale, voluminous carbon removal techniques are relied upon in many climate models and plans by countries and companies to avoid breaching a 1.5C rise in global temperatures since pre-industrial times and unleashing catastrophic heatwaves, droughts, floods and other impacts. Read the full story here.



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[1] Url: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/live/2023/dec/10/cop28-live-focus-on-food-and-agriculture-as-climate-change-summit-continues?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with:block-6575a9b08f08c64a673752c5#block-6575a9b08f08c64a673752c5

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