Kalain Hosein
Meteorologist/Reporter
kalain.hosein@guardian.co.tt
World leaders will meet on Thursday in the heart of an oil and gas-rich country, the United Arab Emirates, to negotiate a greener future and steps to combat climate change in a two-week-long marathon summit called COP28.
Two key facts have long loomed over the event—the globe is careening toward a climate disaster, and governments are failing to move quickly enough to combat its effects.
Diplomats, heads of state, delegates, and a myriad of other groups and companies are set to gather in efforts to transition to greener energy use as fossil fuels continue to dangerously warm the planet.
Last year, at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, nations agreed to establish the Loss and Damage fund. This fund will aid poor, vulnerable countries cope with climate change-fuelled events exacerbated by greenhouse gas emissions primarily pumped into the atmosphere by wealthier nations. However, these emissions have largely continued unabated in the last decade.
At COP28, the United Arab Emirates is hosting the climate conference. However, as the fifth largest oil producer and the COP president leading the twelfth largest oil company globally (by production), many activists are angered. Cooperation has been further complicated by ongoing wars in the Middle East and in Ukraine.
What is COP28?
COP stands for Conference of the Parties, with “parties” referring to the 197 nations that signed onto the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC, or now UN Climate Change) in 1992.
This country signed and ratified the UNFCCC in 1994.
The convention addresses the “dangerous human interference with the climate system” and stabilises levels of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere. Every year, the UN Climate Change convenes governments to jointly discuss how to address climate change.
This would be the 28th time countries have gathered under the convention, hence, COP28.
The conference officially begins on Thursday and runs through December 12, but historically, these negotiations have run past the official end as discussions become increasingly contentious. However, negotiators have already been meeting since last week in closed-door talks.
The high-level discussions are being held at Expo City, Dubai, an area described as a “future-centric mini-city”, connected to both Dubai and Abu Dhabi via a rail transit system known as the Metro.
As with recent COPs, there are two zones for the event: the Blue Zone, where official negotiations occur and where world leaders speak, and the Green Zone. The Green Zone is more widely accessible with side events organised by youth, civil society, academics, businesses, and others.
What is the goal of COP28?
Every country, every organisation, and nearly every group attending COP28 will have slightly different answers.
This year, the results of the first formal assessment of whether nations are on track to meet the goal they set following the 2015 Paris Agreement—to limit warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius, scientists have agreed that it will be increasingly difficult for countries to cope with severe weather, drought, heat, and rising sea levels.
Called the Global Stocktake, if done correctly according to the United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, would look at the world’s progress toward the agreement, the gaps that exist today, and a way forward.
Another primary goal will be the operationalisation of the Loss and Damage fund, which was a significant win at COP27 for small island developing states. Over the last year, committees met to answer questions such as who will pay into the fund, who will manage the money, and who can receive it. However, all countries have to come to an agreement this year.
Finally, another report, dubbed the Adaptation Report, is expected to be released.
It will demand greater spending and focus on adapting certain areas of the globe to a warmer reality, which will also look at reducing emissions.
Key world leaders, such as United States President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, will not be in attendance.
Yesterday evening, after expressing his desire to attend, Pope Francis also cancelled his trip to Dubai on doctor’s orders as he recovers from the flu and lung inflammation.
T&T’s Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, also revised his itinerary after publicly stating he would attend the climate summit in late October.
Rowley said during a post-Cabinet media briefing on November 20 that because of conflicting bilateral meetings in London with oil companies, as well as a potentially lengthy and expensive stay (he cited it would have been “a quarter million dollars”) for his team to remain in the Middle East).
This story was published with the support of Climate Tracker through the COP28 Climate Justice Reporting Fellowship.
