COP28 The Top Climate Summit of the Year: Unpacking Its Significance, Limitations, and the Ongoing Struggle Against Climate Change
COP28, is the most important international climate summit and it opens very soon in the United Arab Emirates. To achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement and mitigate climate change risks, one of the most awaited responses is the commitment of the international community towards the gradual elimination of fossil fuels.
8 essential facts about COP
The UN Climate Change COP is the world’s largest annual climate summit and the driving force behind international political will and action to address the climate change crisis.
“COP” stands for “Conference of the Parties” and is the annual gathering of the 198 countries, or Parties, that have ratified the landmark 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
COPs gather tens of thousands of participants, including world leaders, country delegates, representatives of business, civil society, local communities and the media, to drive climate ambition and action.
Decisions made at COPs cover all areas of the climate agenda: reducing emissions, strengthening resilience, finance and inclusivity… - all crucial to shaping our planet’s future.
The COPs have led to groundbreaking global climate agreements including Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement.
Every year, COP is hosted in different region. The host country usually also serves as the conference's Presidency, steering the meeting to the most ambitious outcomes.
What is special about this year’s COP, the COP28 is that the first “global inventory” will assess progress made against the objectives of the Paris Agreement. This process will further encourage countries to take ambitious climate action to keep warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius.
COP28 has been heavily criticised for its decision to place the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company’s CEO Sultan Al Jaber as this year’s president.
However, eight years after the adoption of the Paris Agreement we know that the world is still on the wrong trajectory. Governments will have to rise to the occasion and increase their ambitions to rectify the situation at COP28. This is one of the main objectives of the international climate summit which will be held in Dubai from November 30 to December 12.
The Paris Agreement makes the COPs matter!
The Agreement was signed in 2015 and sets out long-term objectives intended to guide all nations:
Significantly reduce global greenhouse gas emissions with the aim of limiting global warming to 2°C Celsius this century, while continuing efforts to limit it even further to 1.5°C;
Reassess national commitments every five years;
Provide developing countries with financial resources to mitigate climate change, build resilience and increase capacity to adapt to the effects of these changes.
Source: https://www.un.org/fr/climatechange/paris-agreement
Former Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon (second from left), former UNFCCC Director-General Christiana Figueres (left), former French Foreign Minister and President of the United Nations Climate Change Conference Paris (COP 21) Laurent Fabius, and former French President François Hollande (right), celebrate the historic adoption of the Paris Agreement. UNFCCC
How are we doing today?
Real-world action based on current policies will result in global heating of +2.7 degrees Celsius by 2100 causing more intense and frequent weather changes around the world (source: Emissions Gap Report 2022).
7 crucial actions to get on track for a 1.5-degree global warming limit
“Our world needs climate action on all fronts - everything, everywhere, all at once”.
Antonio Guterres, UN Secrertary General
According to The State of Climate Action 2022, a report that measures our progress on 40 indicators, from electric vehicle sales to clean power generation, we should:
Phase our coal 6 times faster by shutting down the equivalent of 925 average-sized coal plants a year
Expand public transport systems 6 times faster across the world’s highest-emitting cities
Lower CO2 from cement production 10 times faster
Reduce the rate of deforestation 2.5 times faster
Shift to more sustainable, plant-based diets 5 times faster. This means people in the developed world eating no more than 2 burgers per person per week or the equivalent
Improve the energy efficiency of construction 6 times faster in commercial buildings and 7 times faster in residential buildings
Phase out subsidies for fossil fuels 5 times the current rate by reducing public funding by $69 billion per year
While waiting for governments to come to an agreement, civil society is increasing the pressure.
46 million health professionals signed a letter on November 1st addressed to the president of COP28 to ask him to accelerate the elimination of fossil fuels “decisive for the health of all” (source).
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