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COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber urged countries on Friday to get out of their comfort zones and work together to reach an agreement before the two-week summit ends.
“Let’s please get this job done,” he said, opening a plenary session as the summit entered its toughest phase of negotiations. “I need you to step up and I need you to come out of your comfort zones,” he said.
With five days left before the conference’s scheduled end on Dec 12, country ministers are joining the deliberations on Friday.
Still unresolved is how the nearly 200 countries at COP28 will handle the issue of fossil fuels, the main source of climate-warming emissions. At least 80 countries are demanding a COP28 agreement that calls for an eventual end to fossil fuel use.
Such a position would be unprecedented, after three decades of UN climate summits that have never addressed the future role of fossil fuels head on.
The Canadian environment minister was optimistic that a compromise could be reached.
“I’m confident we have to leave Dubai and COP28 with some language on fossil fuels,” Canada’s Steven Guilbeault said. “Even if it’s not as ambitious as some would want, it will still be an historic moment.”
The UN climate agency’s chief made an impassioned plea to countries, reminding that the science behind the world’s goal of holding warming to within 1.5 degree Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of pre-industrial temperatures is clear.