COP28: Superstition or Reform

Abstract

COP28 is over, and the participants finally managed to agree on a consensus document. But it is childish superstition to believe that the outcome will really reduce greenhouse emissions. What is needed is a focus on two important reforms.

After two weeks of wrangling over words at COP28, they finally adopted a consensus document recognizing the need for significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions - down to zero by 2050 - with the for the COP apparently new insight that this requires a transition away from fossil fuels. Some see these sentences as a key historical event and landmark. Others regard them as trivial and meaningless because it remains completely open who should do what and by when to achieve the desired global target state.