What will the UN Climate Summit in UAE change
2023.01.18 13:27
What will the UN Climate Summit in UAE change
By Tiffany Smith
Budrigannews.com – Following criticism from activists regarding the role that the oil-producing nation plays, Denmark stated that it is optimistic that the United Arab Emirates, which is hosting the UN climate talks this year, will push for ambitious climate change mitigation measures at the conference.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) recently appointed Sultan al-Jaber, the head of the country’s oil company ADNOC and its climate envoy, as president of the COP28 climate summit in Abu Dhabi. In this position, he will be in charge of negotiating with the nearly 200 nations that typically participate in the annual talks to address global warming.
After some delegates criticized the event that took place in Egypt the previous year, alleging that producers of fossil fuels had diluted their goals for reducing emissions, the appointment was criticized by activists who were concerned about the influence of the fossil fuel lobby on the talks.
Dan Jorgensen, Denmark’s minister for global climate policy and development, told Reuters, “I think that everything the Presidency has done so far has only given us reason to be optimistic.”
“If we are to stay below 1.5 degrees in temperature increase, it is absolutely necessary that we have a transition of all societies on this planet, including the oil producing ones,” he said, adding that the UAE has been “very engaged” in diplomacy on the issue in his experience, which includes representing Denmark in UN climate talks since 2019.
Al-Jaber stated on Saturday that the United Arab Emirates would approach COP28 with a “great sense of urgency” and that the conference should foster solidarity between the global north and south.
At COP28, countries will give a formal assessment of how far they have come toward the Paris Agreement’s goal of keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and cutting emissions much faster than that.
According to Jorgensen, this inventory must also produce a strategy for how nations will achieve the 1.5C target, as well as additional funding to assist developing nations in doing so.
Primarily as a result of greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels, the world is already 1.2 degrees warmer than it was before the industrial revolution.
