Cop28 live: Guterres calls for talks to agree complete ‘phase-out’ of fossil fuels as India says coal ‘will remain’ main energy source | Cop28

Fossil fuels have turned Indigenous communities into sacrifice zones, endangering their land, water and air and fuelling displacement, one of Cop28’s first briefings has been told.

Brenna TwoBears, lead coordinator for the Indigenous Environmental Network in Oregon, was among Indigenous environmental experts who kicked off the first day of Cop28. They pledged their support for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty and warned of the dangers market-based false solutions posed to Indigenous peoples and the global climate.

TwoBears said:

Indigenous people support the equitable phase out of coal, oil and gas without loopholes used to justify delays and false solutions and tech fixes that allow the fossil fuel regime to continue and grow, and which do not address the climate crisis… this must be accompanied by the fast track adoption of clean energy, a just transition in which no community or country is left behind.

Momentum has been building behind the proposal for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, with support from Indigenous organisations and communities facing some of the gravest threats from extreme weather events and slow-onset climate impacts, such as sea level rise and melting glaciers.

Eight nations – Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Tonga, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Niue, Antigua and Barbuda, and Timor-Leste – have also thrown their weight behind the idea.

Eriel Deranger, executive director of Indigenous Climate Action who is from the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, an Arctic community where Canada exploits tar sands, said:

Carbon trading depends on the continued growth of emissions that will create more sacrifice zones. We cannot achieve a just transition without centring climate solutions on Indigenous and human rights.

Keir Starmer, the leader of the UK’s opposition Labour party, will have a series of meetings over two days with heads of states, business leaders and being hosted for an international investors roundtable on Friday at the Cop28 climate summit.

Starmer will be joined in Dubai by shadow energy security and net zero secretary Ed Miliband, and shadow foreign secretary David Lammy.

He will use the climate summit to emphasise his view that the push to net zero is an economic opportunity, and to say Labour is the only UK party with a plan to pragmatically harness the opportunities of the energy transition.

Starmer aims to draw a dividing line with the Conservative government, noting that prime minister Rishi Sunak was shamed into going to Cop27 and has used the year since to double down on his failures, turning off businesses and investors, failing to cut energy bills and make the UK energy secure. He will aim to get across that the Tories are more interested in sowing political division than facing the biggest challenges of the world.

During his visit to the summit, Starmer will set out some of the planks of an international climate strategy under a Labour government. Earlier this year, Starmer pledged to “throw everything” at net zero and the overhaul of the UK’s energy system and industries, promising new jobs in “the race of our lifetime” to a low-carbon future.

Damian Carrington

“We are living through climate collapse in real time,” UN secretary-general António Guterres has told Cop28 delegates in Dubai, writes Guardian environment editor Damian Carrington.

He spoke at the launch of the World Meteorological Organization’s stark State of the Climate report, which said 2023 will be the hottest year ever recorded.

“This year has seen communities around the world pounded by fires, floods, and searing temperature – and the impact is devastating,” Guterres said. “Record global heating should send shivers down the spines of world leaders. And it should trigger them to act.”

The WMO report, timed to inform the negotiations at Cop28, said climate records had been shattered in 2023, leaving “a trail of devastation and despair”.

Data up to the end of October showed 2023 was about 1.4C (2.5F) above pre-industrial levels, driven by the continued rise in carbon emissions from fossil fuel burning and by the return of the El Niño climate pattern. The latter is likely to make 2024 another record year, and bring the internationally agreed limit of 1.5C (2.7F) ever nearer.

Sultan Al Jaber has officially opened the Cop28 climate talks in Dubai, after receiving the tiny hammer that is the symbol of his presidency.

Reuters has filed the first report of his opening remarks to delegates, based on a text circulated to journalists. The news agency quotes Al Jaber as saying there were “strong views about the idea of including language on fossil fuels and renewables in the negotiated text … I ask you to work together.”

“Colleagues, let history reflect the fact that this is the Presidency that made a bold choice to proactively engage with oil and gas companies,” Jaber said. “We had many hard discussions. Let me tell you, it wasn’t easy.”

Al Jaber noted that many national oil companies had adopted net-zero targets for 2050. “I am grateful that they have stepped up to join this game-changing journey,” Jaber said. “But, I must say, it is not enough, and I know that they can do more.”

While Sultan Al Jaber says some oil companies have set net zero targets for 2050, those only cover the emissions from producing the oil and gas.

No companies have committed to cutting production of the polluting fuels themselves, which is what scientists are clear is needed.

Indeed, the fossil fuel industry plans to produce double the amount of oil, gas and coal than could be burned while keeping under internationally agreed limits for global heating. And the company with the biggest net-zero busting plans is Adnoc, the UAE’s state oil giant, whose CEO is Al Jaber himself.

Even as the Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, prepares to travel to the Cop28 summit, a top official in his government insisted coal will remain India’s main source of energy for years to come.

“Coal is, and would, remain an important part of India’s energy needs,” Vinay Mohan Kwatra, India’s foreign secretary, told reporters ahead of Modi’s trip to Dubai.

India currently depends on coal for almost three-quarters of its electricity generation and is adding 17 gigawatts of coal-based power generation capacity at its fastest pace in recent years to meet a record increase in power demand.

There is hope this year’s climate talks will include efforts to secure a global agreement on the phase-out of fossil fuels, of which coal is the dirtiest and most carbon intensive. India and China have been opposing attempts to block construction of new coal-fired power stations, according to Reuters.

Kwatra said India expects a clear roadmap on climate financing at Cop28 and has always been upfront about its support for a “loss-and-damage” fund aimed at helping countries recover from environmental degradation caused by industrial development.

“Loss and damage fund will be of great benefit to developing countries,” Reuters quoted him as saying.

Delegates are just beginning to find their way around the Cop28 climate talks venue this morning. My environment desk colleague Nina Lakhani is there and sent this dispatch on what it looks like around Expo City in Abu Dhabi.

It’s day one and the sprawling Expo venue is beginning to fill up with delegates, diplomats and activists from more than 180 countries, and among them are serious fashionistas bringing some style to the tense and formal negotiations.

Forget fashion week, the climate summit is both the place to see international clothing trends – and get to know the traditional dress of countries, communities and Indigenous territories that you’ve never visited.

From beaded hijabs, silk saris and brilliant white dishdashas to Mayan huipiles, Amazonian headdresses, and west African Ankara wax fabrics, getting to hang out with people from every corner of the planet is one of the highlights of Cop.

Worst dressed group? The media, without doubt, though some of our colleagues from Africa, Latin America and Asia make a lot more effort than us comfort seekers.

English may be the main negotiating language, wait in line for coffee or the bathroom, and you’ll hear a glorious array of languages and dialects. It’s outside the formal negotiations that the power of collaboration and grassroots community building comes into its own. There’s a lot not to like about Cop but the diversity and relationship building is a beautiful thing.

Delegates at Cop28 are hoping to achieve an early victory on a disaster fund on Thursday before the summit turns its attention to more contentious areas, such as the future of fossil fuels, Reuters is reporting.

The news agency says diplomats are hoping a draft deal on a loss and damage fund can be approved quickly at the start of the climate talks. The United Arab Emirates’ Cop28 presidency has already published a proposal for such a fund.

Once an agreement is reached, rich countries can begin pledging money. Nations including Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands are expected to announce contributions over the next few days, European diplomats told Reuters.

“Everyone with the ability to pay should contribute,” said the EU climate commissioner, Wopke Hoekstra, who said he wanted to “broaden the donor base beyond the usual suspects, simply because that reflects the reality of 2023.”

With governments preparing for long, tough negotiations on whether to agree to phase out coal, oil and gas, the main sources of carbon emissions, it is hoped an early win on loss and damage will pave the way for further compromises later on.

The trade union representing the leaders of schools in the England, Wales and Northern Ireland has said it is “deeply concerned” at climate crisis and the impact it is having on pupils, education workers and communities across the world.

As part of a submission to the Cop28 climate talks by UK trade unions, the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) called for governments “to prioritise their actions before it is too late”, pointing out that extreme climate events are disrupting the education of nearly 40 million children a year worldwide.

Helena Macormac, the NAHT’s international secretary, said:

It is vital that decisive and substantial collective international actions are taken as a matter of urgency – the future of our children and young people is at stake.

The UK government has said that tackling climate change and biodiversity loss is its number one international priority, yet the lack of investment and sustained joined up policy on this area would lead us to believe that this is not the case. Climate change is already having detrimental effect to education working conditions in the UK, with decades of state neglect of school buildings and classrooms not fit for purpose in extreme weather events. We are also already seeing an increase in ‘climate refugees’ and displaced pupils impacting on school communities.

It is vital that the pupil voice is heard within the climate crisis debate, and that they are able to access climate education – it is they that will pioneer the necessary solutions to the climate crisis. Governments must realise the integral role that pupils, school leaders and education providers play in tackling climate change, and work to deliver a ‘just transition’ for the future.