COP28 Shows Why Adaptation and CDR Matter
Compromise, But With Roadmaps
I’m a climate optimist. But I’m also a realist. Hopes were high among climate activists that the final global stocktake from COP28 would call for a “phase out” of fossil fuels. Instead, today’s consensus statement includes a call for the world to “transition away” from fossil fuels in energy systems and triple renewable energy capacity by 2030. The UN press release has a summary and links to the full statement.
The COP28 compromise reinforces key themes for Climate Pivot:
The effort to mitigate harmful emissions and radically reduce fossil fuel will likely fall short of its goals. There will be consequences for overshooting the 1.5C goal, altering the risk equation.
Adaptation and resilience are more important than ever, and will be crucial to our ability to manage through the impacts of climate change.
Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) may become an important last line of defense in stabilizing our climate. The business sector can play a key role in the development and scaling of these technologies (and using them appropriately).
Advancing adaptation and CDR will be expensive, and require commitment. Investment in adaptation will ultimately be a bottom-line decision that action has become less costly than inaction.
Continue reading COP28 Shows Why Climate and CDR Matter at the ClimatePivot.com web site.
Hot Links (Dec. 13, 2023)
Why No One is Investing in Adaptation: The Bloomberg Zero podcast digs into the adaptation gap with Patrick Verkooijen, CEO of the Global Center for Adaptation, which acts as a “solutions broker” for financing adaptation projects.“ Verkooijen says adaptation is “seen as a sunk cost and not as an investment, and that’s wrong. By not investing in adaptation we're missing economic opportunities at scale.” Listen on Apple or Spotify.
Call for Collaboration on Adaptation and Resilience: This COP28 initiative aims to connect private financial institutions to policymakers to mobilize funding for adaptation and resilience. “If the world continues on the same climate trajectory, the global economy is expected to lose 10 percent of its value due to extreme weather events by 2050,” the organizers note. “Mitigation alone will not be able to offset these loses. Alongside work to reduce global emissions, it is incumbent on stakeholders around the world to prioritize climate adaptation and the resilience of our societies and economies.”
Climate activist
sees opportunity in the compromise language in the COP28 stocktake. “The world’s nations have now publicly agreed that they need to transition off fossil fuels, and that sentence will hang over every discussion from now on—especially the discussions about any further expansion of the fossil fuel energy,” he writes. Read more at The Crucial Years.