Alicia Pérez-Porro

After an intense night of negotiations in Dubai (United Arab Emirates), the countries participating in COP28 reached a historic agreement by mentioning for the first time "moving away from fossil fuels" in the Global Stocktake document - the assessment of progress made towards achieving the climate goals set out in the Paris Agreement. The agreement comes after the first draft presented by the presidency did not make this mention - it referred only to "reducing consumption and production" of these fuels - which was described as "unacceptable" by countries such as Spain.

Governments meeting at the COP15 UN Biodiversity Conference in Montreal (Canada) have reached an agreement after two weeks of negotiations. The "Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework" aims to protect one third of land and oceans by 2030.

The UN-driven Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have influenced governments' narratives around sustainability, but have not led to substantial changes in legislative action or resource allocation, according to an analysis published in the journal Nature Sustainability that has analysed more than 3,000 studies.