The COP28, 28th annual ‘Conference of the Parties’, is a climate conference held by the United Nations. This year it is being held from 30th November to 12th December in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The COPs are annual meetings where governments and other organisations can collaborate to discuss how to limit and prepare for future climate change. The long-term goal is to stay below a 1.5-degree limit, outlined in the 2015 Paris Agreement, and avoid the most detrimental effects of climate change.
Currently, we are between a 1.1-degree and 1.2-degree average global increase since the pre-industrial period - the era before reliance on, and large consumption of, fossil fuels. This shows that we don’t have a massive window to save the planet from the worst damage that climate change could create. With current pledges the world is still on track to be at around a 2.5-degree temperature rise by 2100. So, the pledges and actions of countries need to change considerably, and the COP28 could play a pivotal role. As part of this, climate scientists have said that new oil and gas fields cannot be developed if we are to stay under the
internationally agreed 1.5-degree limit.
Who will be there?
Non-governmental organisations such as environmental charities, community groups, think tanks, business groups, and religious groups will attend the meeting. Additionally, over 200 governments will attend - including our Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, and the King, both of whom will address the delegates on 1st December.
China, the United States and India, who are respectively the first , second and third-largest CO₂ emitting countries, are still to confirm whether they will be attending.
What will be discussed?
- A focus on humanitarian and environmental aid.
- Oil, gas and coal representatives have to disclose their industry ties at the conference
(with over 600 fossil industry employees having entered the COP27 meeting in
Egypt).
- A ‘loss and damage fund’: moving money from the global north (richer) to the
global south (poorer) for their climate action initiatives, historical climate damage
reparations and creating new deals for developing nations.
- Increasing the pace of moving from dirty energy to clean energy - ‘slashing’
greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
- Technologies to capture emissions from fossil fuel use during the ‘phase out’ of fossil
fuels. Campaigners believe that restricting agreements to just ‘unabated’ fossil fuels
would allow for some production to continue, and no evidence that this could work
at scale.
- Making the COP28 the ‘most inclusive’ ever.
According to the COP28 website it is going to be a thematic program, including days on health, finance, food and nature. Designing the COP28 conference in a thematic structure unites a diverse range of stakeholders - frontline communities, all levels of government, indigenous communities, investors, youth and more.
Issues with the conference:
Holding the conference in Dubai is quite a controversial choice as, despite the tickets being free, getting to the Middle East could be very restrictive - particularly due to the financial costs and its attitudes towards women. So, COP28 is not as inclusive and global as it could be.
The UAE is one of the world’s top ten oil-producing nations. Instrumental in this is the president of the COP28 summit, Sultan Al Jaber. He is the chief executive of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc). Adnoc has planned huge expansions in oil and gas productions; a decision called ‘ridiculous’ by Guardian researchers and described as ‘the equivalent of appointing the CEO of a cigarette company to oversee a conference on cancer cures,’ (350.org).
Al Jaber is also the chair of the UAE’s renewables company ‘Masdar’, and is a leading voice on climate in the UAE. Al Jaber argues that his uniquely wide knowledge of the energy business is an advantage in the position of President.
His position illustrates that he is either: gradually moving his companies and efforts towards renewables in a smooth transition, or he is delaying the UAE’s environmental response by hosting this conference to exploit the fossil fuel resources in his country.
The fact that Adnoc is planning new expansions - the company has the third-biggest company net-zero-busting plans (according to The Guardian in April) - and that Politico revealed Adnoc was delaying a competition for drilling leases until after COP28, would suggest that Al Jaber is attempting the latter.
This choice of presidency could be an example of greenwashing, of which critics of the COPs, like Greta Thunberg, accused the summits of being continuously guilty. This would involve allowing countries and businesses to promote their climate initiatives without making the changes promised and needed.
This may partly be the case, though a gathering of the world’s leaders, environmental academics and global support will, hopefully, persuade even the initially unwilling to make the changes required to save our climate.
What can you do?
A way in which we can all get involved, without a flight to Dubai, is through ‘Climate Cafés’. They are places for people to talk about the climate crisis with openness, finding common ground in our anxiety around the environment and channelling it into action - pressuring decision-makers at this conference with the amount of global support that a green-first cause undoubtedly has.
The organisation Force of Nature is uniting climate cafés all around the world, in a ‘Global Activation Day’ on the 30 th of November - for Reading and Spark-affiliates, there will be one on-campus between 6pm and 8pm, in Palmer 107.
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