Unexpected progress

COP28 agrees to 'transition away' from fossil fuels

Much concern had been raised about the hosting of the 28th iteration of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) by the United Arab Emirates. The president of COP28, Sultan al-Jaber, is also chairman of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, and this led to many worrying that the defence of fossil-fuel consumption would play a larger role than it should at this COP. But the eventual COP28 declaration, adopted a day late after hard negotiations, took something of a step forward. While it did not meet the demands of small island