What is COP28 and why is it important?

Where is COP28 being held?

This year the rotating presidency is held by the United Arab Emirates and COP28 will be held at the Expo City in Dubai.

While eyebrows were raised when one of the world’s biggest oil producers was selected to lead the talks, the UAE argues it is in a strong position to convince other oil-and-gas-rich countries to go further and faster on cutting emissions.

What is COP28?

It’s the annual gathering of nearly 200 countries, hosted by the United Nations, to discuss ways of avoiding man made climate change and adapting to warming temperatures. The talks have been going for 28 years, giving this year’s talks the technical name of the 28th Conference of the Parties under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Also Read | COP28: Come together for fair and balanced energy transition

The original idea three decades ago was to create a multilateral process in which everyone got to have an equal say in how the world should best cut greenhouse gases. In reality, there are stubborn divides between rich and poor countries. Developing countries argue that developed countries got rich over the last century by creating industries founded on fossil fuels, and that they should be able to do the same.

The COP process made a breakthrough deal in Paris in 2015, when all countries agreed for the first time to ensure that temperature rises stay well below 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre industrial levels and they set a stretch goal to ensure warming doesn’t breach 1.5 C. To achieve that means emissions should fall to “net zero” by the middle of the century.

While the Paris Agreement was a landmark moment, countries have struggled to deliver on it. Each member must make pledges showing how they will contribute their fair share to keeping temperatures in check. But those plans aren’t good enough. This year, countries will hold their first official stocktake of progress so far.

How many people will attend COP28?

This year’s summit is expected to be the biggest yet with more than 70,000 people expected to show up. The UAE is well set up to manage a mammoth event with plenty of hotel rooms in Dubai and one of the world’s best-connected airports. Both COP21 in Paris and COP26 in Glasgow in 2021 had more than 40,000 registered participants, while 33,000 people registered to attend last year’s meeting in Egypt.

Who can attend COP28?

At the heart of COP28 are the negotiators — civil servants from 197 countries, who spend two weeks locked behind closed doors thrashing out the details of the agreements that are supposed to drive action on tackling climate change. Negotiators are often accompanied by their ministers, and sometimes the heads of state who can help to seal a deal. Achieving a consensus is key to the COP process. Every country has an equal say regardless of their size.

But it’s not just governments who attend. Members of civil society groups as well as businesses all turn up too, to make their cases heard on the fringes of the event. And of course, the site is teeming with journalists reporting what’s happening to the wider world.

Why is COP28 Important?

This is the first year since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015 that countries will take stock of the progress they’re making on tackling climate change. We already know the answer: that they’re not going fast enough in cutting emissions at the pace Paris promised. The review is supposed to put pressure on countries to speed things up.

After COP28, countries will have until 2025 to submit new national plans to fight climate change — which will truly determine if the world is heading in the right direction.

Some richer countries, particularly in Europe, are pushing for tougher commitments, such as phasing out fossil fuels and “peaking” emissions (stop them from climbing) by 2025. That’s a big ask for many developing countries, such as India that see fossil fuels as crucial to growing their economies.

This year’s COP will also be crucial for climate finance. Rich countries have now delivered on their promise to mobilize $100 billion a year to help poor countries deal with the worst impacts of climate change. But that is a tiny amount compared to the $2.5 trillion per year that will be needed by 2030. Negotiators will be seeking to reach a deal on a new, post-2025 collective goal for climate finance. Initially, wealthy nations responsible for the most historical emissions were asked to chip in, but now countries such as Ghana are calling for the pool of contributors to be widened to include major economies such as China, the world’s biggest source of climate-warming gases.

The first few days of COP28 will also see a flurry of announcements by world leaders on tackling potent methane emissions from oil and gas, making farming and food production more sustainable, and tripling renewable energy capacity. The host country is also expected to announce a multi billion dollar fund to invest in climate friendly technologies.

Is COP28 destined to be a flop?

A true COP flop is when no progress can be agreed at the end of the two weeks. This happened in Madrid in 2019, with COP25 ending in failure when the parties could not compromise on a final text in many areas. COP21 in Copenhagen in 2009 was also famously deemed a failure. Negotiators couldn’t reach a binding deal to cut greenhouse gases that was supposed to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expired in 2012.

But even if a final text is agreed, many countries — particularly small island nations — will still see it as a failure unless it commits to strong language around phasing out fossil fuels and keeping global warming below 1.5C. The risk this year is that the COP president won’t be seen as impartial enough to broker a deal with all the parties.

It’s starting to look like the world’s biggest emitters may be in the mood to compromise. The leaders of China and the US agreed a deal in mid-November to step up climate action, back global efforts to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030, accelerate the domestic build out of green power to replace coal, oil and gas, and advance cooperation to limit emissions of nitrous oxide and methane, two particularly pernicious greenhouse gases.

Who is the COP28 president?

The UAE has appointed Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber as COP28 president. He also heads up the UAE’s state oil producer, Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., and that has led many environmental campaigners to question whether he can remain impartial as the negotiations heat up over the course of the conference. His supporters point out that he also chairs Masdar, the state renewable company and one of the world’s leading solar developer’s Al Jaber’s job is to bring together all 197 parties, using his diplomacy skills to help countries bridge their divides and final agreement over the line.