Will COP28 be the end of the fossil fuel era?
This year’s COP conference was always destined to be a landmark occasion. The first global stocktake would offer a chance to assess real global progress against the Paris Agreements. While the increase in climate events – from wildfires to storms – has sent delegates to Dubai with a clearer picture than ever of what is at stake.
The resulting agreement has been hailed and hounded in equal measure. Haskoning’s CEO, Marije Hulshof, gave her view:
“The ending of the fossil fuel era has finally been signalled. The world looks to COP to secure these kinds of agreements – that should lead to national action. I congratulate delegates for this achievement, and now the hard work will begin.
At Haskoning, we have been on this journey already for a long time and we are proud to be part of sustainable solutions and approaches to challenges in even the hardest to abate sectors. Alongside this, we are active and innovating in the new and developing sectors that offer us the technologies that will lead us into a clean, renewable energy age.”
Matthew Hunt, Director for Environment-Resilience-Renewables, gave his response to the final text:
“It’s easy to forget the complexity of the COP process. It’s 200 countries coming together – each with their own individual, and interconnected, challenges and perspectives. Together, they must try and agree on a single approach to humanity’s greatest existential threat. This final text is as much a political response – with all its own challenges – as it is a binding charter.
I think in that spirit, we can cautiously celebrate the achievements made in such a small window, but we need to recognise there is still a lot more to be done. And we mustn’t wait another five or ten years for the political consensus to catch-up. At Haskoning, we’ll keep pressing ahead to enhance society together, within our teams and with our clients – accelerating the solutions that already exist to drive our global emissions down and facilitate a healthier, safer, more equitable planet.”
Ensuring a just transition
Matthew reflects on the challenge that comes next – and what is at risk if developed countries are not held to their word.
This is no doubt an historic text. Our challenge now is to ensure it does not remain a historic text, a piece of history that we record and leave behind.
“This is particularly important when we look to ensure a just energy transition. I think we’ve seen a very powerful voice at COP this year from the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) – who led the call, in response to that disappointing first draft text. They are the communities who simultaneously have the least impact on climate change and are most exposed to its damaging effects. And they’re not getting the help they need.
And that has been a big message at this COP. That developed nations are simply not doing enough, fast enough to unlock financial resources and mechanisms for implementation which will enable those most exposed countries to build their climate resilience.
We saw more history with the agreement of a Loss and Damage Fund on day one of COP28. But pledges into that fund remain low – and it’s not always clear whether what has been pledged is actually new investment. To put the need in context, there has been around $700m pledged and the estimates on damage range up to $500 billion or more.”
Celebrate the progress behind the headlines
While the final text absorbs a lot of the headlines, Matthew highlights the many other pledges and initiatives launched during the two-week event.
“There's been some really interesting, positive announcements and initiatives launched and profiled at COP.” Matt continues: “Aside from the conference text, the wider conference profiles important developments, whether private academic tie-ups, community projects and different social groups coming together and collaborating. This is all active work addressing the causes and effects of climate change and showing how ambitions beyond the conference text can be delivered now.”
For me, I was really pleased to see the commitment to tripling global renewables capacity by 2030. Energy is one of our global leading markets at Haskoning, where we have helped in the strategy and engineering of new energy systems. We see first-hand in this work that capacity is one of the big obstacles standing in the way of progress: from port infrastructure investment needed to facilitate offshore wind development, to distribution and transmission networks required to get new projects connected and feeding our grids.
Commitment to building up that capacity will have real impact. Let’s hope the momentum carries forward into the future as these pledges are realised.”
Enhancing Society Together
As a leading global consultant, Haskoning is supporting clients decarbonise in major industries, with sustainable solutions that contribute to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Responding further our CEO, Marije Hulshof, highlighted the importance of that mission: “We are committed to our purpose to Enhance Society Together. Through our own decarbonisation as a business and through the work we do with our clients across major global sectors.”
It is our responsibility, to our planet and ourselves, to ensure our work progresses the world’s just and sustainable transition.
We recognise the scale of the challenge we face, and we work collaboratively with clients, their stakeholders and communities so that we can enhance society together.”
