These small words could make or break the global climate summit

These small words could make or break the global climate summit

CNN  —  The thorniest issue at the global climate summit in Dubai is clear: Fossil fuels. More precisely, the role they should play in our rapidly warming future. As negotiators thrash out the terms of core agreements that will emerge from COP28, the big question is whether countries will ultimately agree to a phase-out of …

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CNN  — 

The thorniest issue at the global climate summit in Dubai is clear: Fossil fuels. More precisely, the role they should play in our rapidly warming future.

As negotiators thrash out the terms of core agreements that will emerge from COP28, the big question is whether countries will ultimately agree to a phase-out of oil, gas and coal, a phase-down — or neither.

The difference between phase-out and phase-down sounds like semantics, but the ability of the world to hold back catastrophic climate change may hinge on it.

While concrete definitions are hard to pin down, a phase-out generally means the world will at some point stop burning oil, gas and coal altogether and bring levels of planet-heating pollution down to zero.

A phase-down, however, leaves the door open for countries to