World leaders and diplomats will convene in Dubai this Thursday as the 28th Conference of the Parties or COP28 is all set to begin on November 30.
The annual United Nations Climate Change Conference is widely expected to serve as the stage for critical debates, negotiations, and a comprehensive review of the member countries' overall progress toward the UNFCCC's ultimate goal of mitigating climate change.
What is COP28?
COP or the Conference to the Parties is an international climate summit which is held every year. The summit includes leaders and representatives from the 198 “parties” that agreed to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992.
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The Kyoto Protocol in 1997 and the Paris Agreement in 2015 are some of the most significant milestones of COP conferences.
When is COP28?
COP 28 is scheduled to kick off on November 30 and go on till December 12.
Where is COP28?
The conference will be held at Expo City Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, a major oil-producing nation.
What’s on agenda?
This year’s climate summit will include a discussion of the first-ever global stocktake, a periodical review and a major component of the 2015 Paris Agreement which will enable countries and other stakeholders to see where they’re collectively making progress toward meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement and where they’re still lagging behind.
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In December 2015, 196 parties at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris adopted the Paris Agreement. Its overarching goal was to hold “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” and pursue efforts “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.”
The first global stocktake got under way in 2022 and will conclude at COP28, marking a turning point for global climate action.
The key findings from the global stocktake report released in September earlier this year suggested that the global community was not on track to achieve the goals set out in the Paris Agreement.
Some other key issues carried over from COP27 in Egypt, will be in the spotlight. These include wrapping up a fund for "loss and damage" and talking about reducing the use of fossil fuels that heat up the planet.
The concept of loss and damage fund is to have a fund setup where money from rich countries, which are responsible for most of the climate crisis, will go to poor countries which have been hardest hit by the crisis.
Who will and won’t attend?
More than 160 member nations, including India, UK, France, Germany and Japan, have confirmed their attendance
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King charles III is all set to deliver the opening address and Pope Francis will be the first pope to attend the COP summit.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has vowed to halt deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, will also be present.
Prime minister Modi too is scheduled attend the conference and has confirmed that he will be present from November 30th to December 1st, 2023.
It remains uncertain whether the Chinese president Xi Jinping will attend COP28. Notably, China holds a prominent global position in both clean and dirty energy, with the highest renewable energy capacity and coal consumption of any country.
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According to the White House, President Biden will not attend a world leaders’ summit Friday and Saturday at the outset of COP28.
