Cop28: climate scientists push back against cheer over ‘historic’ deal, with one calling it ‘weak tea at best’
- Cop28 deal in Dubai labelled as ‘historic’ has drawn scepticism from climate scientists
- Agreement between nearly 200 countries didn’t call for an outright phasing out of oil, gas and coal
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Cop28 climate summit closes with agreement to ‘transition’ from fossil fuels
But many climate scientists said the joyful sentiments of world leaders did not accurately reflect the limited ambition of the agreement.
Michael Mann, a climatologist and geophysicist at the University of Pennsylvania, criticised the vagueness of the fossil fuel statement, which has no firm, accountable boundaries for how much countries should do by when.
“The agreement to ‘transition away from fossil fuels’ was weak tea at best,” he said. “It’s like promising your doctor that you will ‘transition away from doughnuts’ after being diagnosed with diabetes. The lack of an agreement to phase out fossil fuels was devastating.”
Mann called for a substantial reform of the Cop rules, for example permitting super-majorities to approve decisions over the objections of holdout petro states like Saudi Arabia, and barring oil executives such as Cop28 president Sultan Al Jaber from presiding over future summits.
