The 28th Conference of the Parties (COP), the largest climate conference in the world, is currently taking place in Dubai. The signatories to the Paris Agreement have until December 12 to find ways to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. Read more about this important conference here.
COP28 in Dubai runs until December 12. Image: UN Climate Change Conference COP28 | Dubai, 1 December 2023 by Paul Kagame via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 DEED)
Decision-making forum on climate change
COP28 in Dubai will take place in the United Arab Emirates from November 30 to December 12, 2023. The annual climate conference, hosted by the United Nations, is the world’s only multilateral decision-making forum on climate change in which almost all countries participate. The world comes together here every year to agree on ways to tackle the climate crisis. The best-known goal is to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as agreed at COP21 in Paris in December 2015. The four main topics include the transition to clean energy, the role of nature, people, life and livelihoods, financing mechanisms and improving inclusivity.
More than 70,000 delegates attend the climate conferences, including member states or parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (NFDCCC), business representatives, climate scientists, indigenous peoples, young people, journalists and other experts and stakeholders.
Taking stock: the world is not on course
The motto of COP28 in Dubai is “Unite. Act. Deliver” (roughly: act and deliver together). Key issues include finalizing the details for the Loss and Damage Finance Facility to help vulnerable communities cope with the immediate climate impacts (USD 420 million has been pledged so far), setting a global financing target to support the efforts of countries in the Global South to tackle climate change, accelerating the energy transition and just transition, and closing the massive emissions gap faced by almost all countries represented at COP28 in Dubai.
The very first stocktake will be completed at COP28. This is a process that will allow all countries and stakeholders to recognize the progress and lack of progress in achieving the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. Unsurprisingly, the global stocktake shows that the world is not on track to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and that the window of opportunity for meaningful change is closing. Governments are expected to decide to accelerate their ambition, which will be reflected in the next round of climate action plans due by 2025.
At the same time, the global stocktake shows that there are countless instruments and solutions to the challenges of climate change. So far at COP28, more than 100 countries have committed to tripling their use of renewable energy by 2030 and doubling energy efficiency by the same year.
There is a great and urgent need for action to achieve the 1.5 target. Photo: IAEA at COP28 via Flickr, CC BY 2.0 DEED
We are currently only dealing with a small part of the problem
As in recent years, efforts to reach an agreement on phasing out the use of fossil fuels – or at least reducing them rapidly – have been less successful. Given that these fuels account for around 75 percent of climate-changing carbon emissions, it is crucial to tackle this issue. The president of COP28 in Dubai, Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, described calls to phase out oil and gas as “scaremongering” and said it would “take the world back to the caves”, claiming there was “no science” behind calls to phase out oil and gas.
Not only the United Arab Emirates, but many other major oil and gas producing countries are showing little sign of relenting. While scientists warn that still-rising fossil fuel emissions must fall drastically and that carbon capture and storage will only solve a small part of the problem, more and more evidence is emerging of how the effects of climate change threaten food, health and security. There are still a few days to go until COP28 in Dubai – let’s hope for more decisive action.