World’s largest climate event: Why is the UAE chosen to host COP28?

Only 23 days remain until the opening of the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP28 in the United Arab Emirates, which is taking place at a key juncture in global transformative climate action. COP 28 will be inclusive, transparent, realistic, and results-oriented in order to carry out its ambitious agenda.

What is COP?

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 (COP) has held meetings with member countries every year to set ambitions and responsibilities and determine the assessment of climate measures.

COP21 led to the Paris Agreement, which mobilized global collective action to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2100 and work to adapt to the already existing impacts of climate change.

Who is the COP28 President-Designate?

Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber, President-designate of the 28th Conference of the Parties in the United Arab Emirates, was Special Envoy for Climate Change from 2010–2016 and 2020–present.

Al Jaber has been instrumental in shaping the clean energy pathway in the UAE, has been the founding CEO and Chairman of Masdar Company in Abu Dhabi, is currently a leading renewable energy initiator, and has since become a leading global player in clean energy.

Al-Jaber was also involved in focusing on results at more than 11 parties’ conferences, including the landmark Paris Climate Change Conference (COP21) in 2015, and when he joined Abu Dhabi National Petroleum Company (ADNOC) as its chief executive, Al-Jaber led a $15 billion decarbonization strategy.

G-20 States

COP28 President-Designate, Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, urged G-20 countries to lead the way and show solidarity on climate action, as the G20 still has time to show leadership and work with their leaders to drive global climate action in this critical decade.

“For now, many indicators are going in the wrong direction. Where temperature records continue to be broken, last September was officially recorded as the hottest month in history. We are also losing biodiversity, agricultural land is deteriorating, and food insecurity is growing. So if we want to make progress in adaptation, we must first determine what success looks like in terms of stopping the loss of biodiversity. and restoring agricultural land, preserving forests, protecting the coasts, ensuring that no one suffers from hunger, and protecting lives and livelihoods everywhere,” Al Jaber said.

“The G-20 States should make dietary transformation a top priority, and your national adaptation plans and strategies should promote sustainable land use, utilize technologies to increase crop flexibility, promote nutrition, and reduce the climate impacts of agriculture,” Al Jaber added.

“Doubling adaptation funding by 2025 was a crucial first step, but we need to consider channeling a strong proportion of all climate finance towards adaptation responses, yet we need to recognize that many countries are at risk. Especially small island developing states and less developed countries already suffer the consequences of climate change that go beyond what people can adapt to,” COP28 President-Designate explained.

Reasons to choose the UAE as the COP28 host

The United Arab Emirates has proven successful in climate action as the first country in the region to ratify the Paris Agreement, the first to commit to reducing emissions at the economic level, and the first to announce a zero-net-emissions strategic initiative by 2050.

The United Arab Emirates is committed to raising ambition in this critical decade for climate action.

Nationally determined contributions for 2015 made the UAE the first country in the region to commit to reducing economy-wide emissions by 2030 and launched the National Net Zero Emission Pathway by 2050 in November 2022, which sets the time frame and sets out the mechanisms for implementing the UAE’s Strategic Initiative Net Zero by 2050.

The United Arab Emirates was one of only 29 countries to make its second revised nationally determined contribution before COP 27, and the enhanced target is expected to translate into an absolute reduction of about 93.2 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent.