“The words ‘fossil fuels’ have never (before) made it into a COP decision. We’re finally naming the elephant in the room. The genie is never going back in the bottle again.”
So the talking is over and the weary delegates have headed home.
This year’s climate conference, COP28 – when world leaders, activist and lobbyists get together to discuss how to limit global warming - was certainly eventful.
$700 million was pledged to the Loss and Damage fund to help poorer nations deal with the impact of climate change before the conference had even began.
And the ‘elephant in the room’ – fossil fuels and how to wean ourselves off them – was mentioned in the final agreement for the first time in the history of COP… but only after a rejected first draft which took the conference into an extra 24 hours of argument and negotiation.
So has it been a good or bad conference for Africa? Peter Musembi – Africa Daily’s Environment enthusiast, gets an assessment from Mohamed Adow from Powershift Africa.