Rod Oram

Words matter in the politics of climate change at COP28, where around 200 New Zealanders are trying to make a mark.

Signs of weaker language on the phase-out of fossil fuels emerged yesterday as the United Nations' COP28 climate summit delegates prepared for the final few days of talks.

Pacific nations and others fiercely challenge final draft wording for the global climate summit that omits the term ‘phase-out' for fossil fuels

New Zealand is among countries seeking a faster, deeper and explicit phase-out of fossil fuels. They look set to fail. Rod Oram reports from Dubai.

An historic though vague call for “transitioning away from fossil fuels” was agreed by the nations of the world early yesterday morning at the COP28 climate negotiations in Dubai.

At COP28 in Dubai, there was an intensity of debate, a tsunami of evidence, a profusion of advocates, an electrifying urgency and a grasp of consequences we lack in New Zealand.

There are ‘good constitutional reasons' for barring ministers from deciding big projects for political capital or pork-barrel politics