The planet has experienced its hottest year ever. It briefly surpassed the two-degree warming threshold last week. Devastating floods in the Horn of Africa. Summer wildfires ravaged forests across Canada and Australia. Speed of rapidly melting glaciers in history and flowers blooming in Antarctica. Concerning records like these for global temperatures have never been seen before in human history. We are running out of time to avert the catastrophe, thus we can no longer ignore the climate crisis.
Environmental activists claim that the need for immediate, collective action to protect a sustainable earth is now evident. Here are five things to be aware of as the COP28 UN climate negotiations get underway in Dubai on Thursday (tomorrow).
(Photo: Reuters/ A view shows the ‘Cop28 UAE’ logo on a globe, during Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, in Abu Dhabi, UAE.)
This is the reason why the United Nations' yearly international climate summit is receiving greater focus each year. For COP28, several of the world's most important leaders are travelling to Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), in early December.
The transition in energy
All eyes will be on the language that leaders adopt to address the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, which is essential to achieving the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
A "phasedown" of "unabated coal power" was agreed upon by nations at the Glasgow COP26 in 2021. Since then, governments and campaigners have been pushing for the extension of similar concepts to the oil and gas industries, though the exact meaning will need to be worked out.
High hopes are placed on voluntary commitments to double the yearly rate of energy efficiency gains and quadruple the capacity of renewable energy by 2030—a goal recently agreed upon by China and the United States in a climate declaration.
(Photo: Reuters/ Sultan al-Jaber speaks during the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week. The theme of ‘United on Climate Action Toward COP28’, in Abu Dhabi, UAE, 16th Jan 2023)
Bringing "loss and damage" into existence
An agreement in principle to compensate climate-vulnerable countries who bear the brunt of rising extreme weather impacts and are least responsible for greenhouse gas emissions was a significant achievement at the COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.
However, the process of operationalizing a new fund has proven challenging; talks have been going on for more than a year.
Among the queries to be addressed were: will the rich pay, or will all nations? Who are going to be the beneficiaries? What location would the fund be kept?
Early in November, a fragile agreement was reached, and in a recent interview with AFP, Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, the president of COP28, expressed his expectation that a decision will be made soon in the conference.
(Photo: AP/ A general view of Expo City and the Al Wall Dome is seen in Dubai on 27 Nov 2023 for COP28)
The financial gap for climate change
Experts estimate that by 2030, the global economy will require over $3 trillion in annual climate-related flows to maintain current levels of development. However, developing nations have not kept up with the pace of decarbonization, mitigation, or the development of adaptation, building resilience to the effects of climate change.
Richer nations pledged in 2009 to provide $100 billion a year for these goals by 2020; an OECD assessment released earlier this month states that this goal was ultimately reached last year.
Parties aren't required to make a decision this year, but COP28 is anticipated to provide the foundation for a new finance objective to replace the previous $100 billion goal.
Food systems and methane
Despite its strong warming effect, atmospheric methane has attracted comparatively less attention than carbon dioxide, despite being the second largest contributor to climate change.
At the meeting on methane and non-CO2 greenhouse gases that China, the US, and the UAE are organising together, there may be a reinforcement of the 2021 "Global Methane Pledge" to cut emissions by 30 per cent by 2030.
A significant portion of man-made greenhouse gas emissions are attributed to food systems, and food production and transportation are further threatened by extreme weather and droughts. COP28 will be the first meeting of its kind to focus primarily on food systems.
What is COP?
COP stands for the Conference of the Parties, where the “parties” stand for 197 states and a regional economic organisation. They gather once a year to discuss plans to limit climate change.
(With inputs from agencies)
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