COP28 latest: Loss and damage fund to help climate victims agreed on day ۱ of UN summit in Dubai

Focus turns to fossil fuels after loss and damage fund agreed

With the loss and damage fund approved, climate campaigners’ focus now rests more squarely on fossil fuels - and the crucial debate over a phase out or phase down.

You can read our explainer on the battle lines over fossil fuels, drawn well before the start of the summit, here: Phase out or phase down? Fight over fossil fuels heats up in run-up to COP28.

Climate activists attend a rally to end fossil fuels in New York. Credit: AP/Bryan Woolston

“A key issue to be addressed head on at this COP is that it delivers an outcome that deals with the need to justly and equitably phase out fossil fuels,” says Tasneem Essop, Executive Director of Climate Action Network. “We have had a record breaking year of global climate impacts and a number of alarming reports telling us that we are going in the wrong direction.”

Speaking earlier today during the launch of the World Meteorological Organization's State of Climate report, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres again urged leaders to take action on this core issue.

“Record global heating should send shivers down the spines of world leaders,” he said. They should commit “to phase out fossil fuels, with a clear time frame aligned to the ۱.۵-degree limit.”