DUBAI — Nations reached a breakthrough climate agreement Wednesday, calling for a transition away from fossil fuels in an unprecedented deal that targets the greatest contributors to the planet’s warming. The deal came swiftly – with no discussion or objection – in a packed room in Dubai following two weeks of negotiations and rising contention. It is the first time a global climate deal has specifically called to curb the use of fossil fuels.

Countries agreed to transition from fossil fuels “in a just, orderly and equitable manner” while “accelerating action in this critical decade, so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science.”

After the deal was gaveled, the lead negotiator for small island nations said they hadn’t been in the room for the decision. Though they objected to aspects of the text, the group said it wouldn’t try to undo the agreement.

The deal came after through-the-night meetings, some 24 hours after talks were supposed to end.

The adoption of the final deal happened quickly and unexpectedly.

COP28 President Sultan Al Jaber read aloud a portion of the deal and asked whether any delegates objected. Then, abruptly, he declared that “hearing no objection, it is so decided” and banged his gavel.

Many people in the room were confused because they had been bracing for hours of discussion before the agreement. But once it became clear that the deal had been adopted, nearly everyone rose in a standing ovation, and cheers echoed throughout the conference venue.

U.S. special climate envoy John F. Kerry rose from his seat and hugged Dan Jorgensen, Denmark’s minister for climate, energy and utilities. Jorgensen clapped the veteran U.S. negotiator on the back.

“Over the last two weeks, we have worked very hard to secure a better future for our people and our planet,” Al Jaber said after delegates had taken their seats again. “We should be proud of our historic achievement. And the United Arab Emirates, my country, is rightly proud of its role in helping you to move this forward.”

This was a paradigm-shifting day for climate talks. That says as much about the past decades of negotiations as it does about Wednesday’s agreement.

Though many countries, including the United States, said the deal’s language on fossil fuels could have been more stringent, they noted that never before had any global climate agreement specifically targeted coal, oil and gas. Even the 2015 Paris accord focuses on the need to decrease emissions without naming the primary source of planetary warming.

“Humanity has finally done what is long, long, long overdue,” said the European Union’s climate commissioner, Wopke Hoekstra. “Thirty years we’ve spent to arrive at the beginning of the end of fossil fuels.”

But the deal hardly means an immediate end to those sources of energy.

Though it calls on countries to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels in this decade, they are given clearance to consider their own “national circumstances, pathways, and approaches.”

The chief global goal of the text is to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, but even in that scenario, there would be limited use for oil and gas. The text also mentions the need to ramp up technologies “such as carbon capture” that could be used in tandem with fossil fuels to capture emissions.

Kerry acknowledged that “many, many people here would have liked clearer language about the need to begin peaking and reducing fossil fuels in this critical decade.”

He framed the agreement as a compromise and a hard-fought diplomatic achievement. He referenced wars and frayed global trust that many predicted at the outset of the talks could complicate efforts to strike a meaningful deal.

“I think everybody here should be pleased that in a world of Ukraine and the Middle East war and all the other challenges of a planet that is foundering, this is a moment where multilateralism has actually come together and people have taken individual interests and attempted to define the common good,” Kerry said. “That is hard. That is the hardest thing in diplomacy, the hardest thing in politics.”

Kerry, who turned 80 during this event, appeared to be wearing the same tie as the day before – reflective of through-the-night talks.

“While all of us can find a paragraph or sentences or sections where we would have said it differently, where we would have liked it not to appear, or something else to appear. But in a multilateral venue, to have as strong a document as has been put together, I find is cause for optimism, cause for gratitude, and cause for some significant congratulations to everybody here,” Kerry said.

In a moment that injected drama into the summit’s finale, a Samoan delegate said the deal was gaveled through when diplomats from small island nations were not in the room. Had they been present, they would have voiced strong objections, she said.

“It seems that you just gaveled the decision and the small island developing states were not in the room,” said Anne Rasmussen, an official with Samoa’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the lead negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States, which represents 39 low-lying island countries vulnerable to rising seas.

“We were working hard to coordinate the 39 small island states, developing states, that are disproportionately affected by climate change and so we were delayed in arriving here,” she said. “This process has failed us.”

After her remarks, Rasmussen wiped tears from her eyes. Several other delegates walked over and hugged her, and about half of the room gave her a standing ovation.

However, a spokeswoman for the Alliance of Small Island States later clarified that the group would not seek to block the final deal. “We weren’t given the opportunity and will not now,” the spokeswoman said in a text message.

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