COP28 update: Day 12, 12 December
Welcome to the final daily update from COP28 in Dubai. The charming sounds of birdsong and music from the Green Zone next door competed with the clang of metal as stands were torn down to make way for the next event at Expo City (a winter festival which starts on Friday), but happily the coffee stands were still open, at least until 1800.
While the IETA team were getting a few hours of rest overnight, closed-door talks on the Global Stocktake text were still ongoing.
The dispute over language in the GST talks pitted more than a dozen large developing economies including India, China and even Bolivia, who resisted any language relating to a fossil fuel phase-out or phase-down, against a coalition that encompassed the EU, the US and Australia, who have favoured a phase-out of “unabated” fossil fuel. Meanwhile the least developed and small island nations insist on “phase-out”. As we reported yesterday, it looked like some delegations were prepared to walk away if they didn’t see the language they want in the final text.
Tuesday began quietly, with no formal consultations or plenaries until the evening. New texts were not expected to be published until 1800 at the earliest. Our remaining staff were left to hang around outside the meeting rooms and walk around those parts of the COP venue that they hadn’t had a chance to visit.
In the end, it wasn’t until after 2100 Dubai time that a new set of Article 6 texts were published (see below), while an updated Global Stocktake draft wasn’t expected until the early hours of the morning, with a plenary scheduled for Wednesday morning.
Article 6
After a whole day of informal talks and negotiations, the Secretariat published new texts shortly after 2100, and scheduled three quick contact groups for 2200:
After a fairly short series of contact groups on each of the three texts, the draft Article 6.2 and Article 6.4 texts were not adopted, while the Article 6.8 text was adopted.
The text was rejected mostly by non-users (the EU, Mexico, AILAC and the US for Article 6.2), while countries engaging in carbon markets were willing to compromise (Japan, Switzerland, Singapore, African Group).
Several Parties stated they would be willing to continue working with the Presidency overnight on new, revised texts to try and find a last hour agreement. But, as of midnight Dubai time, we believe this scenario is unlikely.