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The politicians have boarded their flights and businesses are on their way home with dreams of setting up shop in Dubai, COP28 has officially closed its doors.

Like every year, it was a privilege to be able to attend. There is a certain buzz at COP that you can’t replicate anywhere else, mainly due to the fantastic integration of civil, corporate and civic stakeholders. It’s not hard to bump into some of the most influential people in the climate space if you hang around long enough.

COP28 started out strong and ended on a weaker note. It took one day to formally establish a loss and damage fund to support especially vulnerable countries dealing with the effects of climate change, setting the conference up on a running start. Despite the momentum, the first draft of COP28’s plan does not once mention phasing down or phasing out, and in 11.5k words, only mentions the term ‘fossil fuel’ three times. However, backlash led to negotiators working overnight and a deal being agreed in the very early hours of Thursday 13th December which sees all parties commit for the first time ‘moving away’ from fossil fuels. Whilst this isn’t as strong a commitment as the ‘phase out’ message that many governments wanted, it does mark a significant step forward in the move towards a clean economy.

Here at Evidex, as global leaders in renewable energy certification, we know exactly how important the move away from fossil fuels is, and how even more important it is to put the right incentives in place to ease that transition. That’s why we are beyond pleased to have seen some 116 countries sign the Global Renewable Pledge and Energy Efficiency Pledge, which agrees to triple renewable energy generation capacity to at least 11 TW and double global energy efficiency improvement rates from around 2% per year now to more than 4% per year by 2030.

Additionally, we witnessed 27 countries agree to endorse a global certification hydrogen standard and to recognise existing hydrogen schemes, to help unlock global trade in low-carbon hydrogen.

Certification holds the key to unlocking the energy transition we are looking for. Through the process of certification, we can physically track every stage of a new product, whether that be hydrogen, carbon capture, green electricity and more, ensuring environmental benefit owners will see every credit transfer and be confident that emission reduction claims are valid. It provides the dual benefit of transparency and fiscality.

Therefore, we walk away from this COP with concerns, especially as some are ensuring oil and gas go nowhere in the short term – but also with an abundance of hope. Whole blocs of countries are going above and beyond to become greener and explore new energy markets to make this happen. Finally, we are coming to grips with the fact that we have the financial tools, the technology, and the will to create change, now it depends on how we implement it.

If the world is going to triple its renewable energy generation capacity, Evident has a lot of work to do, so we’ll get on with that now.