The United Nations Climate Change Summit (COP28) officially opened this Thursday in Dubai, and is expected to be the busiest in the history of climate meetings, with an attendance of about 70,000 people.
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The president of COP27, held in 2022 in the Egyptian city of Sharm el Sheikh, Sameh Shukri, was in charge of handing over the presidential baton to the Emirati Sultan al Jaber, who was chosen by acclamation by the parties to begin the meeting.
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In his inaugural speech, Al Yaber detailed that under his leadership and over the next two weeks, The job of COP28 negotiators will be to “advance along unprecedented paths, and take everyone with them”with proposals that “have a new vision with the maximum ambition, that lead to results in the real world” and that action is taken “without nonsense or delays so that the world regains faith in multilateralism.”
Al Yaber explained that this meeting begins in the context of “a crossroads” in which, despite the progress made in the fight against climate change since the Paris Agreement, “we all know that the path we are on will not lead to the destination we we want on time.”
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“We have no choice but to go the unconventional route and be flexible, find common paths and move forward with solutions and achieve consensus and never lose sight of our North Star of 1.5 degrees, which is the goal I will be focused on. with laser precision,” he said.
In this sense, he pointed out that Science has already spoken about climate change and “was clear” about the need to find a more ambitious pathwhich means that in the review of the Global Balance – the progress towards compliance with the Paris Agreement that is analyzed this year -, all countries “take lessons and ambitiously correct their mistakes.”
“Finally we are going to have to look at the issues of mitigation, adaptation, the means of implementation, such as financing… Everything united under one umbrella with the greatest ambition to connect everything we agree on here with practical action for the real world” , said.
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The also president of the Emirati state oil company ADNOC, whose presidency of the UN climate meeting has been criticized by environmental groups for having put “the wolf in charge of the flock”, indicated however that his work will be to include all parties in the climate agenda, including companies and hydrocarbon producers, in this process “in which everyone has an urgent and immediate role to play.”
Al Yaber also insisted that financing will be key at the meeting, so that “the Global South does not have to choose between development or climate action” and that developed countries fulfill their promise to deliver $100 billion to address this issue.
That point of financing was also pointed out by Shukri, who regretted that despite the progress made at the Sharm El Sheikh summit, there are still many “promises and commitments” to be fulfilled in terms of financing..
For his part, Jim Skea, the new head of the UN climate scientific committee, the IPCC, pointed out in his presentation that the policies now in place put the planet on the path to failing to meet the Paris goal and warming on average up to three degrees. (above pre-industrial temperature).
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Skea nevertheless highlighted the “promising signs of climate action”, such as the “sustained” reductions in emissions that have occurred in some countries and that have diverted the global trend of increasing emissions through measures that “must be integrated and extended” to the rest of the world.
COP28 will continue until December 12 and will bring together thousands of global leaders, activists, scientists and representatives of industry and society in search of solutions at a key crossroads for the planet’s climate and energy future.
EFE
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