COP28 gets under way to face mammoth climate challenge
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Calls have intensified for the two-week conference to agree on a timeline to phase out fossil fuels, the main cause of global warming.
PHOTO: AFP
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DUBAI - The world’s largest climate conference got under way on Nov 30 in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates (UAE) against a backdrop of record global temperatures and deadly weather disasters.
Calls have intensified for the two-week conference to agree on a timeline to phase out fossil fuels, the main cause of global warming.
But a major fight is expected over the language around the future of fossil fuels, still the world’s largest source of energy, especially in many poorer nations.
The key question is how to phase out coal, oil and gas in a timely but fair manner.
More than 70,000 people are expected to attend the United Nations’ COP28 climate conference in Dubai Expo City
Negotiators from nearly 200 nations are tasked with signing off on a deal that will put the world on a safer path by mapping out ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions, ramp up renewable energy investment, and significantly boost finance for poorer nations to turn their economies greener and cope with increasingly severe climate impacts.
“If we do not signal the terminal decline of the fossil fuel era as we know it, we welcome our own terminal decline – and we choose to pay with people’s lives,” UN climate chief Simon Stiell said at the formal opening of the talks. He added that the world has been taking baby steps to tackle accelerating climate change instead of the sprint that is needed.
“This has been the hottest year ever for humanity,” he said. But there were clear choices that could be made to make the world safer.
Nations must decide to fund the green transition properly, including through financing for irreparable losses and damage suffered by the poorest and most vulnerable nations to worsening storms, floods, droughts and rising sea levels that are stunting their economies.
On Nov 30, delegates adopted a loss and damage fund,
After years of dragging their feet on the issue, wealthy nations backed the fund in a landmark agreement at the COP27 summit in Sharm El-Sheikh in 2022. Negotiations during 2023 on the structure of the fund, who was eligible to receive financial support and who would host it have been fraught.
The UAE and Germany said on Nov 30 that they would each commit US$100 million (S$133 million) to the fund. Britain also pledged up to £60 million (S$101 million), the United States US$17.5 million, and Japan US$10 million.
Host UAE is also hoping COP28 will agree on a tripling of global renewable energy output by 2030. Achieving this will need trillions of dollars, especially for developing nations.
A key but increasingly threatened goal is to limit average global warming to 1.5 deg C above pre-industrial levels, a guardrail of the 2015 UN Paris climate agreement.
The 1.5 deg C limit could be breached in less than a decade, scientists say, based on current emissions levels, and exceeding this limit risks far more extreme weather disasters and faster sea-level rise.
Underscoring the growing risks, data to the end of October showed that 2023 was already around 1.4 deg C above the pre-industrial baseline, the UN’s World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said on Nov 30 in its provisional 2023 State of the Global Climate report.
It said 2023 is set to be the hottest ever recorded, with extreme weather leaving “a trail of devastation and despair”.
“It’s a deafening cacophony of broken records,” said WMO chief Petteri Taalas. “Greenhouse gas levels are record high. Global temperatures are record high. Sea level rise is record high. Antarctic sea ice is record low.”
COP28 president Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber has called on delegates to ensure an ambitious outcome. But Dr Al Jaber, who is also the UAE’s Special Envoy for Climate Change and Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, has courted controversy for his role as the head of Abu Dhabi’s national oil company.
He has faced a storm of criticism, with accusations that an oil boss should not be leading a major climate conference, especially when the UAE is investing heavily to boost oil and gas output.
At the opening ceremony, he implored delegates to be willing to compromise. He also called for consensus around a framework for the future energy system.
“I know there are strong views about the idea of including language on fossil fuels and renewables in the negotiated text. We have the power to do something unprecedented,” he said.
COP28 president Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber has called on delegates to ensure an ambitious outcome.
PHOTO: AFP
At the vast COP28 venue, the site of the 2020 World Expo, scores of nations have built their own colourful pavilions to showcase their efforts on climate action, to network and to announce deals.
It is all part of how UN climate conferences have changed over the years, turning into giant trade fairs.
Singapore on Nov 30 launched its pavilion, which aims to promote the Republic’s steps to tackle climate change, achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, and showcase the growing number of partnerships with other nations, businesses and academia in the climate and sustainability space.
“The Singapore Pavilion will bring together global leaders from diverse sectors and professions to foster collaboration,” Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu said in a video address at the pavilion’s opening.
“It is here that we hope to forge new partnerships and accelerate climate actions together.”
Mr Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, said the pavilion’s programme will span three main themes: decarbonisation, finance and resilience.
These refer to steps to cut emissions from across industries; financing the green transition, including innovative financing measures that blend public and private money; and building resilience to climate impacts, such as boosting coastal defences, better drainage and steps to bring down the temperatures of cities.
“Our contribution to climate action is not just to remove the 0.1 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions that we account for,” Mr Menon said at the opening ceremony for the pavilion. “More importantly, it is to collaborate with partners from around the world to galvanise resources and incubate and scale solutions for climate action.”
