Rift on ending use of fossils delays COP28

Draft deal released on Monday failed to call for 'phase-out' of oil, gas, coal

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• Despite the rapid growth of renewable energy, fossil fuels still produce about 80% of the world's energy

The COP28 climate talks went into overtime on Tuesday and countries engaged in shuttle diplomacy to seek a new draft agreement and try to close a rift over ending the world's use of fossil fuels.

Many nations criticized a draft text for a deal released on Monday for failing to call for a "phase-out" of oil, gas and coal. The United Arab Emirates' COP28 director general Majid Al Suwaidi said the aim of the text was to "spark conversations".

"By releasing our first draft of the text, we got parties to come to us quickly with those red lines," he told reporters.

Negotiators from the nearly 200 countries at the Dubai summit are attempting to agree a global plan of action to limit climate change fast enough to avert more disastrous flooding, fatal heat and irreversible changes to the world's ecosystems.