For the first time since nations began meeting three decades ago to tackle climate change, diplomats from nearly 200 countries approved a global pact that explicitly calls for “transitioning away from fossil fuels” like oil, gas and coal that are dangerously heating the planet.
The sweeping agreement, which comes during the hottest year in recorded history, was reached on Wednesday after two weeks of furious debate at the United Nations climate summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. European leaders and many of the nations most vulnerable to climate-fueled extreme weather were urging language that called for a complete “phaseout” of fossil fuels. But that proposal faced intense pushback from major oil exporters like Saudi Arabia and Iraq as well as fast-growing countries like India and Nigeria.
In the end, negotiators struck a compromise: The new deal calls on countries to accelerate a global shift away from fossil fuels this decade in a “just, orderly and equitable manner,” and to quit adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere entirely by midcentury. It also calls on nations to triple the amount of renewable energy, like wind and solar power, installed around the world by 2030 and to slash emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
While past U.N. climate deals have urged countries to reduce emissions, they have shied away from explicitly mentioning the words “fossil fuels,” even though the burning of oil, gas and coal are the primary cause of global warming.
The new deal is not legally binding and can’t, on its own, force any country to take action. Yet many of the politicians, environmentalists and business leaders here hoped it would send a message to investors and policymakers that it is the beginning of the end of fossil fuels. Over the next two years, each nation is supposed to submit a detailed, formal plan for how it intends to curb greenhouse gas emissions through 2035. Wednesday’s agreement is meant to guide those plans.
“This sends a clear signal that the world is moving decisively to phaseout fossil fuels, turbocharge renewable energy and efficiency, and tackle forest loss and degradation,” said Jake Schmidt, the senior strategic director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group. “It puts the fossil fuel industry formally on notice that its old business model is expiring.”
The deal represents a diplomatic victory for the United Arab Emirates, the oil-rich nation that hosted these talks at a sprawling expo center in Dubai under hazy skies just 11 miles away from the largest natural gas power plant in the world. Sultan Al Jaber, the Emirati official and oil executive presiding over the talks, has called a phaseout of fossil fuels “inevitable” and has staked his reputation on being able to persuade other oil nations to sign on to a major new climate change agreement.
“Through the night and the early hours of the morning we worked collectively for consensus,” said Mr. Al Jaber on Wednesday morning before a room full of applauding negotiators. “I promised I would roll up my sleeves. We have the basis to make transformational change happen.”
It remains to be seen if countries follow through on the agreement. Scientists say that nations will need to slash their greenhouse gas emissions by roughly 43 percent this decade if they hope to limit total global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, compared to previous levels. Beyond that level, scientists say, humans will struggle to adapt to rising sea levels, wildfires, extreme storms and drought.
Max Bearak, Lisa Friedman, Somini Sengupta and Jenny Gross contributed reporting from Dubai.
