The tiny bit of language that has garnered the most attention over the past 12 days at COP28, the international climate talks in Dubai, has been the phrase “phase out.”
That’s what a coalition of countries was hoping to get included in the final agreement that would come out of the talks, which closed Dec. 12: a commitment from countries to end fossil fuel use completely in the coming years.
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After nearly two weeks of negotiations, the phase-out language got cut from the so-called Global Stocktake agreement on the second-to-last day of COP28. But outside of the phase-out debate there were other bits of language that appear to have permeated the talks in a new way: phrases like “climate justice,” “sacrifice zones,” and “vulnerable communities.”
Such terms were integrated “into both high-level negotiations and every session I attended,” says attendee Mustafa Santiago Ali, the executive vice president of the National Wildlife Federation and founder of Revitalization Strategies. “This shift towards inclusivity and equity marks a significant evolution in the approach to these discussions,” he says.
Ali was part of a sort of unofficial Black climate justice delegation to COP28, which also included Pastor Emily Carroll, who works with the faith-based climate organization Green the Church (and was a member of the United Methodist Church’s official delegation) and Rev. Leo Woodberry. And while the lack of a commitment to phase out fossil fuels can be seen as a huge failure from the perspective of any group working on climate issues, there were positive developments at COP28 for climate justice in the United States.
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For Carroll — who leads a church in rural northern Louisiana, where there is a lot of fracking and methane flaring but not yet a strong tradition of environmental organizing — who was attending the climate talks for the first time, simply being in the proverbial room was empowering.
“To know that you have this dynamic with that many people from across the world with this goal and mission and concern…it was affirming for me to be in that space,” she says.
Aside from the phase-out question, climate finance was the other major issue discussed at COP28. A new fund has been established to help support energy transitions, resiliency projects, and other climate-friendly developments, with a focus on countries that are both at the greatest risk and never had high emissions, to begin with — countries that look similar in a lot of ways to front-line communities in the U.S. And finding new ways to help such countries, Ali says, could also result in more help for Black and Brown Americans too.
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“The spotlight on climate finance, especially the currently underfunded Loss and Damage fund, is vital for Black Americans and the African Diaspora, who face more significant impacts from climate change and environmental injustices,” he says. “Increased global commitments could enhance U.S. policies, providing more robust support and resources for these communities.”
As Ali notes, however, the Loss and Damage fund doesn’t nearly have the kind of financial commitments it will need in order to be a success. And it will take further policy action from American politicians to connect those international investments to local climate resiliency projects — and yet another step (at least) will be necessary to make sure that those projects prioritize the Black and Brown communities that are in the front lines of climate change in the United States.
Which is to say, attendees at COP28 may be saying some of the right words, whether that’s “phase out” or “climate justice” — but there’s still work that needs to be done to turn that language into actions.
But Carroll came away feeling like good things were going to come from COP28 nonetheless. “I see some of the climate wins from the Biden administration trickling down,” thanks to funds from the Inflation Reduction Act, she says. “And as an optimistic person, I hope that other money will get to the people around the world who need it too.”