This document will help guide climate policies and commitments, and a new stocktake will take place every five years. In place of calls to phase out fossil fuels, the document instead states that parties could take actions to reduce “both consumption and production of fossil fuels, in a just, orderly and equitable manner so as to achieve net zero by, before, or around 2050 in keeping with the science.”Canada, the U.S., the U.K., Japan, and Australia are part of an umbrella group of nations demanding stronger commitments to transition off fossil fuels. The Climate Action Tracker, an independent scientific project monitoring climate progress, said in a recent report that current policy pathways are unchanged since the 2021 climate summit in Glasgow. Though Canada is a member of the umbrella group pushing for stronger language in the COP28 deal, it has stopped short of agreeing to fully cutting fossil fuel use. In a statement released on Dec. 12, Canada again said it is committed to “phasing out unabated fossil fuels,” meaning those which don’t use carbon capture and storage for emissions.
