Climate Meeting in Dubai
Significance of COP:
- The COP continues to be the primary location for the construction of the global climate governance apparatus.
- At COPs, all nations are given a voice, and issues of equity and vulnerability are more frequently discussed.
Catastrophic weather occurrences in 2023:
- intense heat in Europe and North Africa.
- Hawaii and Canada both had wildfires.
- Libyan and Indian floods.
- Africa’s Horn is experiencing a drought.
- The temperature of the land and the sea rises.
- Sea ice in Antarctica declined.
Worldwide Stockpile:
Global Stocktake (GST) 1:
- A crucial component of the Paris Agreement’s apparatus, it is.
The GST is the focal point of a five-year “ambition cycle” that includes the following:
- national commitments to combat climate change.
- an evaluation of the GST’s development made worldwide.
- renewed national commitments.
- It evaluates overall progress in mitigation, adaptation, and support (money, technology, and capacity) rather than country-by-country.
- According to the GST, greenhouse gas emission paths are not on course to keep global warming to the 2°C or 1.5°C objectives set in Paris.
Obstacles to GST:
- Developing nations: In keeping with equity, GST should take a close look at previous attempts and hold many developed nations accountable for their failures.
- Developed nations contend that since developing nations will be mostly responsible for future emissions, the GST should concentrate on reducing emissions in the future.
What is the function of the GST?
- GST demands more aspiration.
- It demands that promises be carried out more effectively.
- It focuses on steps that nations can and should take right now as opposed to hazy declarations of intent for decades to come.
What action ought GST to take?
- The next round of bottom-up national pledges, known as Nationally Determined Contributions, which are required by 2025, ought to be guided and informed by GST.
The Fossil Fuel Case:
- India is one of the countries that has supported focusing on all fossil fuels rather than just coal.
- as already mentioned in COPs.
- Most polluting is coal.
- To combat climate change, fossil fuels must be addressed.
- In the developed world, oil and gas are far more abundant energy sources, and they are essential to petrostates like Dubai and India, which rely more on coal.
- At the COP, diplomats are expected to handle a problem that is becoming more pressing while creating difficult circumstances for international cooperation.
- The COP is likely to contain language requiring nations to double energy efficiency and triple renewable energy in order to give implementation specific shape.
- Concepts that the recent G20 Delhi Leaders’ Declaration prominently included.
- The aspect of climate negotiations that has frequently been overlooked is adaptation. COP28 offers a chance to change this, as a “Global Goal on Adaptation” that establishes uniform, consistent targets for boosting resilience and adaptable capacity is to be agreed upon.
- Agreement on the Creation of a Loss and Damage Fund: This COP is in charge of promoting advancement.
- During the pre-negotiation, a tenuous agreement was reached on a number of issues:
- Who will contribute to the fund? Developed nations are “urged” to contribute, while poor nations are “encouraged.”
- who will benefit—the ambiguously defined “particularly vulnerable” nations.
- It was decided to designate the World Bank as the fund’s temporary home, subject to stringent governance regulations that would give recipient nations more influence.
- The GST is cautious to emphasise the need for ambition in both action and support—most significantly, funding—for those initiatives.
- By COP28, the focus of the conversation has turned to a quantitative evaluation of the needs—numbers that are in the low trillion range—to assist mitigation and adaptation.
- The implications of climate change, the politics surrounding the use of fossil fuels, and the competitiveness of emerging energy solutions are significant for countries hosting the Conference of Parties.
- While none of this will be settled in Dubai, it will be a significant turning point in the gradual development of world climate policy.
