Delegates at UN climate talks in Dubai agree to ‘transition away’ from planet-warming fossil fuels

BY SETH BORENSTEIN, DAVID KEYTON, JAMEY KEATEN AND SIBI ARASU

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — United Nations climate negotiators directed the world on Wednesday to transition away from planet-warming fossil fuels in a move the talks chief called historic, despite critics’ worries about loopholes.

“Humanity has finally done what is long, long, long overdue,” Wopke Hoekstra, European Union commissioner for climate action, said. After nearly 30 years of talking about carbon pollution, climate negotiators in a key document explicitly took aim at what’s trapping the heat: the burning of coal, oil and natural gas.

Within minutes of opening Wednesday’s session, COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber gaveled approval of the central document — the global stocktake that says how off-track the world is on climate and how to get back on — without asking for comments. Delegates stood and hugged each other.

“It is a plan that is led by the