📅 30 November – 12 December 2023
Dubai, UAE
A critical moment in global transformative climate action. In the three decades since the Rio Summit and the launch of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Conference of the Parties to the Convention (COP) has convened member countries every year to determine ambition and responsibilities, and identify and assess climate measures. The 21st session of the COP (COP21) led to the Paris Agreement, which mobilized global collective action to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels by 2100 and to act to adapt to the already existing effects of climate change.
COP28 President-Designate urges G20 nations to lead the way and demonstrate solidarity on climate action
- There is still time for the G20 to show leadership, and the event is calling people to work with the leaders to drive global climate action in this critical decade.
- Many of the indicators are going in the wrong direction. Temperature records continue to be broken, with this month officially recorded as the hottest in history.
- The world is losing biodiversity. Agricultural land is being degraded. And food insecurity is increasing.
- To make progress on adaptation, the world first has to define what success looks like in terms of stopping biodiversity loss, restoring agricultural land, preserving forests, protecting coastlines, ensuring no one goes hungry, and safeguarding lives and livelihoods everywhere.
- G20 nations should make the transformation of food systems a top priority.
- The national adaptation plans and strategies should promote sustainable land use, leverage technologies to increase crop resilience, enhance nutrition, and reduce the climate impacts of farming.
- Doubling adaptation finance by 2025 is a critical first step but people need to look at directing a solid proportion of all climate finance toward adaptation responses.
- Yet the world must acknowledge that many vulnerable countries – in particular, small island developing states and least developed countries – are already experiencing consequences of climate change that go beyond what people can adapt to.
The UAE’s proven track record on climate action
As the first country in the region to ratify the Paris Agreement, the first to commit to an economy-wide reduction in emissions and the first to announce a Net Zero by 2050 strategic initiative, the UAE is committed to raising ambition in this critical decade for climate action.
Our 2015 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) made us the first country in the region to commit to an economy-wide reduction in emissions by 2030, and we launched the National Net Zero by 2050 Pathway in November 2022, which sets the timeframe and identifies the mechanisms to implement the UAE Net Zero by 2050 strategic initiative.
The UAE was one of only 29 countries to submit a revised second NDC ahead of COP27. The enhanced target is expected to translate into an absolute emissions reduction of about 93.2 million metric tons of CO2e.
