Welcome to Zero. I'm Oscar Boyd.

COP28 has finally come to a close after frantic last-minute negotiations that meant the giant climate summit run well into overtime.

Now with the final text agreed upon, delegates are working their way back home, and the venue that hosted the conference will start its transformation into a winter wonderland for the residents of Dubai. There could hardly be a better image to sum up the clash of worlds that was COP28,

hosted by an oil-dependent economy a few miles from the world's largest gas fire power plant,

attended by more than 100,000 delegates across two weeks at a site built for huge trade shows.

So what was all this frenetic activity for?

And did COP28 president, Sultan Algebra, make good on his promise for this to be the

most ambitious climate summit to date?

For this episode, I talked with Zero's regular host, Akschatrathie, about what was achieved

and whether the 1.5 degrees Celsius target is still alive.

Actually, I appreciate it's been a hectic few days at COP 28 and we're getting you right

at the end of your Dura cell bunny charge. Thank you so much for taking the time and there's

a lot to discuss with today's agreement. But before we get into the weeds, let's just quickly understand why the agreements that are made at

cop actually matter. It's a good question. You know, 200 countries come together, in this case,

100,000 people fly in from different places to meet, to talk, and really, what do they produce?

It's a piece of text. But sometimes, that piece of text can have real world consequences. We know that from the Paris Agreement. In 2015, when the

world signed off on a goal to keep warming below 2 degrees Celsius and try efforts for 1.5 degrees Celsius, it became a rallying cry.

By 2018, we had the formula, net zero by 2050. That is now a target. In many cases, a legally

binding target for major economies. And it is a corporate target for many of the biggest

companies in the world. So when the text is

signed off by 200 countries, it has a weight that is hard to get in any other form of diplomacy globally.

Sometimes the wording is woolly, there are loopholes, but if the direction of travel is set, it makes a difference.

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