Our Kids’ Climate’s Statement on COP28

The COP28 global climate talks are over. What’s Our Kids’ Climate’s assessment?

For the first time, we have a global climate agreement that calls on governments to “transition away from fossil fuels.” This sends a critical and long overdue signal that the world is taking steps to close down the fossil fuel era. But we know that our children need us to turn those steps into a sprint.

We welcome COP28’s call for governments to triple renewable energy by 2030, but this has to come hand-in-hand with the ending of fossil fuels. There are too many loopholes in the text that could be exploited by the fossil fuel industry and some governments bent on business as usual.

COP28 should have called for a rapid and just phase out of fossil fuels, underpinned by climate finance at scale and global solidarity. This is what our children need.

Fossil fuels are polluting our children’s air, exposing them to worsening climate disasters, and stealing their futures. Over 90 percent of children worldwide are breathing dirty air that harms their health each and every day. Communities that have done the least to cause carbon pollution are bearing the brunt of climate breakdown.

Incredibly, it took thirty years for the UN climate process to acknowledge that fossil fuels are driving the climate crisis. That it happened at a COP hosted by an oil-producing nation – with a record number of fossil fuel lobbyists in attendance – is testimony to the tenacity of the climate movement and affected governments. The mothers, youth, indigenous leaders, health workers, Pacific islanders pushing tirelessly for the sake of current and future generations.

And the COP is only part of the story. Around the world, parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles and caregivers are bringing their all to protect the children they love and our precious planet.

We are in communities, boardrooms, schools and on the streets, fighting against fossil fuel interests and forging a new reality, a new world. A world powered by renewable energy and in balance with thriving nature, and in which our children breathe clean air, and live, play and grow up on a healthy planet. For the love of our children and all children, we will keep going.

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