Wolfgang Obergassel, Christof Arens, Christiane Beuermann, Carsten Elsner, Lukas Hermwille, Nico Kreibich, Hermann E. Ott, Max Schulze-Steinen

Carbon & Climate Law Review, Jahrgang 17 (2023), Ausgabe 4, Seite 195 - 206

The twenty-eighth Conference of the Parties (COP28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Dubai among many other items concluded the first Global Stocktake (GST) under the Paris Agreement. This article discusses the conference's outcomes in the areas of mitigation, loss and damage, adaptation, climate finance, and cooperation under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. The conference arguably made history by for the first time ever recognising the need to “transition away” from fossil fuels, adopting specific targets for the scale-up of renewable energy and energy efficiency, and by operationalising a fund to support developing countries in dealing with loss and damage caused by climate change. However, the legal language in the call for an energy transition is relatively non-committal and the conference failed to underpin the new global objectives with adequate resources. Actual implementation of the Dubai outcomes will therefore to a large extent depend on whether COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan - already billed as “finance COP” - will be able to cut the Gordian knot of finance.

Wolfgang Obergassel, Christof Arens, Christiane Beuermann, Carsten Elsner, Lukas Hermwille, Nicolas Kreibich, Hermann E. Ott, Juliane Schell, Max Schulze-Steinen, Meike Spitzner

Carbon & Climate Law Review, Jahrgang 16 (2022), Ausgabe 4, Seite 225 - 242

The twenty-seventh Conference of the Parties (COP27) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Sharm el-Sheikh made history by for the first time ever discussing and ultimately even agreeing to establish a fund to address loss and damage caused by climate change. However, the conference did little to limit the occurrence of loss and damage in the first place by containing the extent of climate change. This article discusses the conference's outcomes in the areas of mitigation and adaptation, loss and damage, the Global Stocktake, cooperation under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, climate finance, and gender-responsiveness. While modest progress can be observed, it is too slow to actually achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement. This pace is leading many, not least the most vulnerable countries, to search for parallel arenas of cooperation.