A flurry of pledges during the opening days of the United Nations climate summit steered clear of a key proposal for limiting global warming: phasing out fossil fuels.

Nearly 120 countries promised Saturday to triple the world’s renewable energy capacity and double the global rate of energy efficiency, while oil and gas companies committed to ending methane emissions by 2030. On the same day, the U.S. pledged $3 billion to help nations adapt to climate change and reduce emissions, while announcing a sweeping final rule to slash methane emissions from oil and gas operations. (The money pledge is “subject to the availability of funds,” the Treasury Department cautioned.) 

Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp summed it up as “the single most impactful day” at the annual U.N. climate summit in the nearly 30 years they’ve been occurring.

But some environmental organizations and leaders of endangered island nations are skeptical, write Zia Weise and Charlie Cooper.

Accelerating clean energy is “only half the solution,” said Tina Stege, climate envoy for the Marshall Islands. “The pledge can’t greenwash countries that are simultaneously expanding fossil fuel production.”

Some of the pledges are also repeats. The U.S. pledge for $3 billion in climate finance is identical to a 2014 initiative from the Obama administration, which delivered only $1 billion.

The pledges come as countries debate whether to use the term phase “out” or phase “down” in a global agreement to limit fossil fuel production. The U.S., the world’s top oil producer, has called for phasing out “unabated” fossil fuels — which could allow continued use of oil, gas and coal whose greenhouse gas emissions are captured or counteracted.

“COP28 is not a trade show and a press conference,” said Mohamed Adow, director of the think tank Power Shift Africa. “Getting an agreed fossil fuel phase-out date remains the biggest step countries need to take here in Dubai.”

Reality bites
In a Sunday report to the U.N., scientists warned that it’s “becoming inevitable” that countries will miss the Paris Agreement target to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, writes Chelsea Harvey. Temperatures have already risen at least 1.1 degrees since the preindustrial era.

The best-case scenario now may be limiting the likely “overshoot” as much as possible, by bringing global temperatures back down. And scientists say that requires rapidly phasing out fossil fuels, along with carbon dioxide removal, Chelsea writes.

But COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber, the oil executive helming this year’s climate talks, has said that there is “no science” supporting the need to phase out oil and gas to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.

Putting an end to fossil fuel usage could “take the world back into caves,” al-Jaber added in a live online event last month.

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Today in POLITICO Energy’s podcast: James Bikales breaks down the Biden administration’s guidance for the electric vehicle tax credit.

Thousands of mail carriers are accusing the U.S. Postal Service of ignoring its own heat safety programs and falsifying records ahead of a summer full of deadly heat waves, writes Ariel Wittenberg.

The potential violations were uncovered during Ariel’s three-month investigation, involving internal union documents, federal workplace complaints, and interviews with mail carriers and experts.

The accusations arrive as the debt-plagued Postal Service pushes workers to make faster deliveries amid growing competition with Amazon and other shipping services, even as a changing climate leads to record-high summer temperatures.

Among those workers was Eugene Gates, a 66-year-old who died of heat stroke while on his route in June. Ariel’s investigation found that a month before Gates died, his manager reprimanded him for taking too long to deliver the mail.

Letter carriers are more prone to deadly heat strokes that lead to confusion, nausea and organ failure because they walk along paved streets carrying a 30-pound bag and drive in trucks that often lack air conditioning.

But the mail service has long denied that heat threatens its employees. It often fights federal citations from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, claiming that delivering mail outside in triple-digit temperatures is not the direct cause of illness or death from heat strokes.

The union opposing California’s energy transition
A powerful union in California is defending well-paying fossil fuel jobs despite billions of dollars in federal subsidies for green industries, highlighting the struggles of the Biden administration in quickly adopting clean energy without undercutting labor, writes Alex Nieves.

The State Building and Construction Trades Council of California is a key ally of oil and gas interests, opposing a series of state climate bills, including one that mandates reporting of carbon emissions from fossil fuel supply chains. Behind the union’s opposition lies worries that new renewable energy and clean tech industries would not be a reliable source of labor-friendly jobs.

Wyomingites oppose auction of a national park parcel
Wyoming is poised to sell 640 acres of trust land within Grand Teton National Park to raise millions of dollars for its public schools, triggering near-unanimous opposition from state residents who are lobbying their land commissioners to block the sale, writes Rob Hotakainen.

Many residents at a public hearing last month voiced concerns that the auction of now-protected land will bring in large mansions for out-of-state residents seeking a second or third home in the pristine area. Opponents say the parcel slated for auction provides critical habitat for elk, sage grouse and antelope.

‘Let me clarify:’ COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber has hit back at claims that he denies a core part of climate science.

Clean energy boom: The Treasury Department is swamped with applications for bonus clean energy tax credits in low-income communities, estimating that the energy from proposed wind and solar projects would surpass this year’s target by more than four times.

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Global carbon emissions are set to grow again this year, as surging consumption of coal, oil and natural gas continues to increase planet-warming pollution.

U.S. climate envoy John Kerry outlined a plan to help other nations shift from fossil fuels, which would provide developing nations billions of dollars by allowing corporations to purchase carbon credits from those lower-income countries.

Efforts from fossil fuel companies to adopt carbon capture and storage are not aligned with pathways meant to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius.

That’s it for today, folks! Thanks for reading.