The United Nations Climate Change Conference COP28, held from November 30 to December 12, 2023, concluded with a resounding call to accelerate collective climate action. The conference took place in what is already known to be the hottest year ever recorded in human history, as impacts of the climate crisis wreaked unprecedented havoc on human life and livelihoods worldwide.
COP28 is the 28th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The event takes place annually, and this year, it was held in the United Arab Emirates. The conference addressed the climate crisis by agreeing on ways to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. Over 85,000 delegates attended, including member states, business leaders, young people, climate scientists, indigenous peoples, journalists, and other experts and stakeholders.
With 198 Parties, UNFCCC has near universal membership and is the parent treaty of the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement. The main aim of the Paris Agreement is to keep a global average temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius and to drive efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The UNFCCC is also the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. All agreements under the UNFCCC aim to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system in a time frame that allows ecosystems to adapt naturally and enables sustainable development.
This year’s COP28 in Dubai was a decisive moment to act on climate commitments and prevent the worst impact of climate change. UAE has the presidency for COP28, with Dr. Sultan Al Jaber as this year’s president. Also, it marks the conclusion of the “global stocktake,” the first assessment of global progress in implementing the 2015 Paris Agreement.
World not on track
The findings are stark: The world is not on track to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C by the end of this century. It does recognize that countries are developing plans for a net-zero future, and the shift to clean energy is gathering speed. However, it makes clear that the transition is nowhere near fast enough yet to limit warming within the current ambitions. A recently published report by UN Climate Change shows that national climate action plans (nationally determined contributions, or “NDCs”) would collectively lower greenhouse gas emissions to 2% below 2019 levels by 2030, while the science is precise that a 43% reduction is needed.
The global stocktake must catalyze greater ambition in meeting the Paris Agreement’s goals as nations prepare to submit revised national climate action plans by 2025. It lays out actions to accelerate emissions cuts, strengthen resilience to climate impacts, and provide the support and finance needed for the transformation.
“Over 160 world leaders were in Dubai because only cooperation between nations can get humanity back in this race. But COP28 cannot be just a photo-op. Leaders must deliver—the message is clear,” said UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell. “And as leaders leave Dubai after the opening summit, their message to their negotiators must be equally clear: don’t come home without a deal that will make a real difference.”
Climate finance stands at the heart of this transformation. Replenishing the Green Climate Fund, doubling financial resources for adaptation, and operationalizing the loss and damage fund are critical to keeping 1.5°C within reach while leaving no one behind.
“The reality is that without much more finance flowing to developing countries, a renewables revolution will remain a mirage in the desert. COP28 must turn it into a reality,” Stiell added.
Progress on climate finance at COP28 will be crucial to build trust in other negotiation areas and to lay the groundwork for an even more ambitious “New Collective Quantified Goal” for climate finance, which must be in place this year. It will also set the stage for a just and inclusive transition to renewable energy and the phasing out of fossil fuels.
In the face of rising conflicts and tensions worldwide, Stiell emphasized the need for collaborative efforts to combat climate change. In this area, nations can work together effectively to ensure a sustainable future for people and the planet.
“We don’t have any time to waste. We need to take urgent action now to reduce emissions. At COP28, every country and every company will be held to account, guided by the north star of keeping 1.5°C within reach,” said COP28 President Dr. Sultan Al Jaber.
“All parties should be prepared to deliver a high-ambition decision in response to the global stocktake that reduces emissions while protecting people, lives and livelihoods,” Al Jaber added.
Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs and COP27 President Sameh Shoukry shared, “It is of crucial importance to continue building on previous achievements, but more importantly to implement what we already agreed upon. We cannot achieve our common goals without having everyone on board, most importantly, the Global South. We need to start delivering on climate justice and provide the needed tools that we already agreed upon in Sharm el-Sheikh for funding loss and damage, including the establishment of a fund. One of the major outcomes that have to come out of COP28 is for the fund to be fully operationalized and funded.”
COP28 achievements, next steps
According to UNFCCC, “COP28 was particularly momentous as it marked the conclusion of the first ‘global stocktake’ of the world’s efforts to address climate change under the Paris Agreement. Having shown that progress was too slow across all areas of climate action—from reducing greenhouse gas emissions, to strengthening resilience to a changing climate, to getting the financial and technological support to vulnerable nations—countries responded with a decision on how to accelerate action across all areas by 2030. This includes a call on governments to speed up the transition away from fossil fuels to renewables such as wind and solar power in their next round of climate commitments.” (Story courtesy of United Nations Climate Change and unfccc.int)