DUBAI - The United Nations climate chief on Dec 6 called on nations to pick up the pace at the COP28 talks, saying the marathon conference needs to deliver a “bullet train” to hasten global climate action.
As the two-week talks reach the half-way point, Mr Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, spelt out the key areas where progress was urgently needed and said there was no time for posturing and point scoring by negotiators.
And more cash was urgently needed to accelerate climate action in poorer nations by funding green energy investment and to help them adapt to the worsening ravages of climate change.
The talks in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are due to end on Dec 12 but, like most COPs, will likely run well into overtime.
“Finance is the great enabler for climate action. The negotiations must put it front and centre,” Mr Stiell told reporters.
“At the end of next week, we need COP to deliver a bullet train to speed up climate action. We currently have an old caboose chugging over rickety tracks.
“All governments must give their negotiators clear marching orders. We need the highest ambitions, not point scoring or lowest common denominator politics,” he added.
The conference got off to a positive start on Nov 30 with agreement on setting up a fund to help poorer nations cope with irreparable loss and damage from climate impacts, such as storms, floods and droughts.
The fund, to be initially hosted by the World Bank, has so far attracted pledges of more than US$700 million (S$938 million), but is far from the hundreds of billions of dollars experts say are needed.
Trillions of dollars will also be needed to achieve a goal, backed by about 120 nations at COP28, to triple global renewable energy capacity by 2030. Developing nations will need huge sums to fund the green transition, meet their energy needs, and switch away from fossil fuels.
Mr Stiell called for greater transparency on financing pledges and for promises to fund climate action across the world to be fully delivered.
In an update on pledges at the conference, the COP28 UAE presidency said on Dec 6 that more than US$83 billion had been announced in the first five days across a variety of initiatives.
On Dec 8, the talks shift into a higher gear, with ministers arriving to lead their negotiating teams and drive progress.
A major focus for many nations is trying to reach a decision on phasing out fossil fuels – language strongly rejected by the fossil fuel industry and big fossil fuel exporting nations. For nearly 30 years, the industry has fought to keep out references to fossil fuels in final decision texts at UN talks.
But the key role of fossil fuels in driving the climate crisis dominates discussions at COP. And the UAE, as host of COP28, will need to find a way to include calls to switch away from coal, oil and gas, analysts say.
The UAE is also in the spotlight. It has ambitious expansion plans for oil and gas production, and the COP28 president, Sultan Al Jaber, is the head of the emirate’s main oil and gas firm, drawing ongoing accusations of conflict of interest.
