COP28 and the F agenda

I was advised by my daughter in Abu Dhabi not to say the F word while in the UAE. Two weeks later and I was tongue tied trying to string a sentence of F words together! The resounding demand from civil society at COP28 was for a fast, fair, funded, full, forever and feminist fossil fuel phase out.

COP28 started with a bang when the Loss and Damage fund was deemed operational and countries started to make pledges to it. Ireland pledged €25,000,000 which turned out to be a mere shuffle of funding already allocated for climate mitigation and adaptation. However with the USA only pledging €17,000,000 it didn’t seem as bad.

The first 2 days are always plagued with getting lost but this year I was still getting lost on day 10 because the venue was so vast. During the time I was there I attended events to broaden my mind, meetings about negotiations with our national decision makers and other meetings to collaborate and strategise with allies in the climate justice movement.

Due to the fact that I represent Feasta at the conference and An Taisce at the Climate Action Network, CAN, I was entitled to get involved with CAN at the COP. This meant that I could attend the daily briefings, engage with working groups on various themes and keep on top of what was happening with negotiations. CAN Europe and CAN international host daily meetings, events and actions every year at the COP.  There is so much to do at COP that being involved with CAN always helps to narrow my focus.

Before ever leaving Ireland our agenda was set in collaboration with CAN. The EU negotiate as a block so we pushed for Ireland to influence Europe. This means that all parties were being informed at the same time so when they came together our message was fresh in their minds. This year the agreed mandate was for a fast, fair, funded, full, forever and feminist fossil fuel phase out. There were many other positions to be monitored and influenced but the main focus for animation purposes was the F campaign.

My other commitments while there were to the Environmental Pillar, Stop Climate Chaos and the Irish civil society delegation. We kept in touch, attended events if we could and met with Irish decision makers on site. Knowing Irish policy and our position in Europe is always important when it comes to negotiations. We can push our representatives to be strong when and where we know the Irish position aligns with civil society and NGO demands.

The global stocktake, GST, dominated this year’s COP. The parties taking stock of their progress was agreed back in 2015 in Paris. Trouble is that not much progress has been made. The GST process includes a pathway forward. It was all looking very positive when a phase out of fossil fuel was one of a number of positive proposals included in an early draft. However on December 11th a new draft was released and that ambition had disappeared altogether. That was with one day left in the process.

One could be forgiven for wondering if it was all a trick to ensure that a compromise could be achieved. If the bar is set so low as to be on the ground then countries are more likely to accept any improvement with at least one of their conditions making it into the final draft. That’s how it played out and it reminded me of COP27 when a similar last minute compromise was secured on Loss and Damage funding.

This is a snapshot of my role at COP28. I will prepare separate blogs on specifics including the role of militarisation in climate breakdown, there being no climate justice without human rights amongst others.

The images here relate to the planned final day of negotiations when the low bar draft was on the table. I sacrificed my T shirt and wrote our call for fast, fair, funded, full, forever and feminist fossil fuel phase out on it. Then I stood in a place where all parties passed on their way to the plenary.

Theresa O’Donohoe

December 2023