losses and damages, tripling of nuclear power… The commitments announced at this stage in Dubai

Many of these announcements are voluntary, non-binding commitments.

Commitments are pouring in at COP28. After a historic decision on climate damage, the climate conference which has been held in Dubai since November 30 is the occasion for a whole series of financial and energy announcements. These latter are for many, voluntary commitments, certainly virtuous but not binding. At the same time, laborious and crucial negotiations are taking place to obtain a final decision from COP28 which has the authority of a consensus between nearly 200 countries, under the aegis of the United Nations. Here are the commitments made at this stage.

Create a “loss and damage” fund

The first day of negotiations saw the launch by the COP of a “loss and damage” fund intended to help vulnerable countries cope with the increasingly costly and damaging consequences of climate disasters. The first financial promises amounted, on Saturday, December 2, to more than 650 million dollars (597 million euros), according to a count from the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The United Arab Emirates, Germany, Italy and France have each pledged up to $100 million or euros. However, these amounts are only an initial investment to test the first steps of the fund before a real round of financing. They are well below the 100 billion dollars per year that certain developing countries, historically the least responsible for warming, have demanded.

Triple renewable energies and nuclear power

Around twenty countries, including the United States, France, Japan and the United Arab Emirates, called in a joint declaration on Saturday to triple the world’s nuclear energy capacities by 2050, compared to 2020. China and Russia have not signed. This voluntary appeal illustrates the spectacular renewed interest in the atom, a source of almost carbon-free electricity but which suffered after the Fukushima accident in 2011.

At least 118 countries have also signed a call to triple the capacity of renewable energy installed globally and to double the annual rate of improvement in energy efficiency from 2% to 4% by 2030. But the major producing countries and hydrocarbon consumers have not signed, including Russia, Iran and China. The United Arab Emirates, host of COP28, joined the call.

Accelerate the exit from coal and methane

France launched on Saturday with the United States and other countries, including Vietnam and Indonesia, an initiative to support the acceleration of the exit from coal, which still generates a third of the world’s electricity. Judging that the energy transition risks threatening jobs and the economic stability of many emerging countries still dependent on coal, particularly in Asia, the participants, including Canada, the United Kingdom, Malaysia and Senegal, called for “unlock new sources of public and private financing”. They called on the World Bank to lower the cost of clean energy investments in emerging countries.

The United States has also joined the Power Past Coal Alliance, committing to closing its coal-fired power plants without CO2 capture.

Regarding methane, largely ignored by climate agreements until now even though it is responsible for 30% of historic warming, the United States announced that new countries, including Turkmenistan, had joined an initiative called “Global Methane Pledge”. It aims to reduce methane emissions by 30% by 2030, compared to 2020.

Integrate agriculture into action plans

Agriculture and food, the source of around a third of greenhouse gases of human origin, are also often forgotten in COPs and countries’ climate plans. Ruminants and rice fields, for example, generate methane.

For the first time, more than 130 countries agreed on Friday to include these sectors in their action plans. But the declaration has been criticized for lacking concrete targets, and for not signaling any changes towards more sustainable diets, including meat-free diets.