After two weeks of tense negotiations, delegates reached a historic final COP text in Dubai this week.
In a victory for all pushing for a pragmatic approach to the climate challenge – the final COP28 text recognized, for the first time, the need to transition away from fossil fuels, advance clean energy solutions like wind and solar, nuclear energy, carbon capture, and low-carbon hydrogen, and rapidly cut methane emissions – all while allowing for a regionally flexible approach that acknowledges each countries’ energy access and energy security needs.
This breakthrough consensus came in overtime, one day after the scheduled close to COP28. It reflects growing recognition of something CATF has been pushing for years: we must move quickly and decisively toward a zero-carbon future, and, in order to do so, we must move strategically as well.
Outside of the negotiations, civil society, industry, and policymakers raised ambition and announced new actions to set the stage for much of the negotiating text – launching new initiatives to triple renewable energy and nuclear energy, fund global methane mitigation, regulate greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas, fund loss and damage, and more.
Please enjoy a roundup of our events during Week 2 at COP28, where we focused on moving from pledges to plans with real action in the near-term.
Featured Events
Nuclear energy at scale: A new pathway to meet the climate and human development challenge
Last Friday at COP28, CATF launched a new report reimagining the global ecosystem for nuclear energy deployment. After more than 20 nations committed to tripling global nuclear energy capacity by 2050, this new report provides solutions that can help enable the changes needed to turn that ambition into action.
“The world faces a triple challenge: achieving carbon-free, secure, and affordable energy at scale. In nearly all forecasts for achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 – nuclear has a key role to play,” Carlos Leipner, CATF’s Global Director for Nuclear Energy Strategy said at the launch event.
Nuclear energy deployment has been hindered by flaws inherent in the existing ecosystem that countries rely on to deliver new nuclear energy. Nuclear at Scale proposes a suite of commercial and regulatory solutions that together provide nuclear energy with a new pathway to future success.
Pledges to plans: Effective principles and processes for viable and durable transitions
Clean Air Task Force launched its second report of the weekend at an event on Saturday, challenging the status quo of energy planning processes worldwide. The report, Pledges to Plans: Principles and Components of Durable Energy Transitions, emphasizes the critical need to overhaul planning mechanisms to overcome bottlenecks and accelerate decarbonization to meet clean energy and climate targets.
“Governments have made commendable strides in setting emission reduction targets and providing financial incentives – but the Global Stocktake has just made very clear that these targets aren’t actually being achieved. An incomplete understanding of the role of planning in resolving bottlenecks to deploying clean infrastructure quickly is one of the largest factors that has left the world far off track of its clean energy and climate targets,” Kasparas Spokas, Director of Insights and Integration Strategy at CATF said.
Because the approach to energy planning will differ by region and type of infrastructure, the report provides principles of effective energy planning that can inform the creation of planning processes at any level and jurisdiction.
Fusion energy: Sustaining the net-zero transition and energy security
What is fusion energy, what could it deliver, and where does it stand right now? Experts joined CATF in the Zero-Carbon Future pavilion, with CATF’s Global Director of Fusion Energy, Sehila Gonzalez, opening the panel with a primer of what fusion is and its potential within the decarbonization debate.
“We need to get better at telling the story of fusion. People need to understand that it’s the original energy source from which nearly every other energy is derived. We also need to highlight the tremendous progress fusion has made over years,” Phil Larochelle of Breakthrough Energy Ventures said on the panel.
Last week, the White House announced a comprehensive strategy to foster international partnerships to develop and commercialize nuclear fusion energy – a major step toward securing a potentially transformative clean energy source.
Pathways to 24/7: Accelerating climate solutions
24/7 strategies, which seek to match electricity use with carbon-free electricity on a narrow time basis, have emerged among numerous electricity buyers who recognize the needs of deep decarbonization and wish to leverage their buying power to deploy the necessary resources on the grid. At the Zero-Carbon Future pavilion, CATF’s Director of Climate Equity and the Clean Energy Transition, Jeanette Pablo, led a discussion on early lessons from leaders pursuing 24/7 carbon-free electricity.
Plus – read more from the CATF team on how Europe can and must secure clean electricity around the clock.
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