{"id":249094,"date":"2023-11-27T12:01:12","date_gmt":"2023-11-27T12:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=249094"},"modified":"2023-11-26T03:43:42","modified_gmt":"2023-11-26T03:43:42","slug":"cop28-when-is-the-climate-summit-and-why-is-it-being-held-in-dubai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2023\/11\/cop28-when-is-the-climate-summit-and-why-is-it-being-held-in-dubai\/","title":{"rendered":"COP28: When Is the Climate Summit and Why Is It Being Held in Dubai?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_249095\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cop28-uae-dubai-un-environ-climate.webp\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-249095\" class=\"wp-image-249095\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cop28-uae-dubai-un-environ-climate.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cop28-uae-dubai-un-environ-climate.webp 900w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cop28-uae-dubai-un-environ-climate-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cop28-uae-dubai-un-environ-climate-768x512.webp 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-249095\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sultan Al Jaber, the CEO of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, is president of COP28. Kamran Jebreili\/Associated Press\/Alamy<\/p><\/div>\n<blockquote><p><em>The COP28 climate summit is taking place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from 30 November to 12 December.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>22 Nov 2023<\/em> &#8211; World leaders, scientists, activists and more are all set to convene for talks at the United Nations climate conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. After a year of extreme weather around the world, including the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/2402008-the-past-12-months-were-the-hottest-ever-on-record\/\" >hottest 12 months<\/a> ever recorded, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/mg25634175-000-this-years-cop27-set-up-a-major-battle-for-next-years-climate-summit\/\" >COP28<\/a> comes at a critical juncture for international climate action. Here\u2019s what you need to know about it.<\/p>\n<h2>What is COP28 and when is it happening?<\/h2>\n<p>COP28 is taking place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), from 30 November to 12 December. It is the 28<sup>th<\/sup> Conference of Parties (COP) to be held as part of an international treaty called the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which was established at the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/mg13418235-100-last-chance-to-save-the-planet\/\" >Earth Summit in Brazil in 1992<\/a>. Its aim is to tackle the negative impacts human activity has on the environment, especially greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n<p>As part of the UNFCCC, all signatories \u2013 which currently include the 193 UN member states \u2013 gather every year at a COP to discuss efforts to combat and adapt to climate change.<\/p>\n<p>Since the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/mg14519700-100-hot-air-in-berlin\/\" >inaugural COP in 1995<\/a>, crucial climate commitments have been agreed at these summits. This includes the landmark <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/definition\/the-paris-agreement\/\" >Paris Agreement<\/a> from COP21 in 2015, the legally binding international treaty that sets out to keep global warming to 1.5\u00b0C above pre-industrial levels.<\/p>\n<h2>Why is COP28 being held in Dubai?<\/h2>\n<p>Each of the UN\u2019s five regional groups takes it in turns to host COP \u2013 this year the job fell to the Asia-Pacific Group.<\/p>\n<p>In January, the UNFCCC Secretariat declared Asia-Pacific Group\u2019s decision for the UAE to be the host, with Sultan Al Jaber, its minister of industry and advanced technology, at the helm as the conference\u2019s president. Six months later, the UAE announced that COP28 will take place at Dubai\u2019s Expo City.<\/p>\n<div class=\"NewsletterPromotion\"><\/div>\n<h2>Why are people worried about fossil fuel influence at COP28?<\/h2>\n<p>The UAE is one of the largest oil producers in the world and Al Jaber is also the CEO of the UAE\u2019s Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.<\/p>\n<p>It comes as no surprise, then, that the presidency has been met with intense concerns from climate campaigners over how the presidency may affect negotiations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAppointing the head of an oil company to the presidency was particularly alarming,\u201d says <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.e3g.org\/people\/tom-evans\/\" >Tom Evans<\/a> at climate think tank E3G. \u201cAre they going to be a fair and neutral presidency or are they going to draw a line somewhere if they see parties pushing on a fossil fuel outcome that would make them feel uncomfortable?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But it is also essential to acknowledge the fossil industry in these negotiations, he says. \u201cThe [UAE] have been clear that their view of climate action involves bringing on board the private sector.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In response to critics, Al Jaber has maintained that he is uniquely poised to galvanise the oil and gas industry into climate action.<\/p>\n<h2>Who will be at COP28?<\/h2>\n<p>More than 70,000 delegates are expected to attend, including hundreds of world leaders and senior government officials \u2013 making it one of the biggest multilateral events of the year.<\/p>\n<p>So far, UK prime minister Rishi Sunak and Brazil\u2019s president, Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva, have said they will be there, as well as King Charles III and Pope Francis. However, some key climate players, such as China, India and the US, are still yet to confirm who will be attending.<\/p>\n<p>Business leaders, climate scientists, activists, non-governmental and civil society organisations, Indigenous peoples and the media will be among the tens of thousands of other attendees.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNGOs have a huge amount of specialised and highly technical expertise that governments rely on,\u201d says <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/teresa-anderson-b173b7271\" >Teresa Anderson<\/a> at international NGO ActionAid. \u201cA lot of developing countries have really small delegations, so they can\u2019t be present across all issues that could affect them, and we help with that.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>What will be discussed at COP28?<\/h2>\n<p>Top of the agenda will be a \u201cglobal stocktake\u201d. As part of the Paris Agreement, a comprehensive assessment of all climate action to date is to be conducted every five years. The first of these stocktakes will conclude during COP28 and guide governments in their negotiations. It will also inform each country\u2019s next round of climate goals, or nationally determined contributions, which they are due to submit in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Preliminary findings from the global stocktake, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/unfccc.int\/documents\/631600\" >released in September<\/a>, unsurprisingly warned that much stronger actions need to be taken in the next five years to avert breaching 1.5\u00b0C of warming.<\/p>\n<p>Other big-ticket agenda items at COP28 will be firming up how a so-called loss and damage fund, for the countries most affected by climate change, will be financed and managed, and the phasing down of fossil fuels.<\/p>\n<p>________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>Chen Ly is a news reporter who writes across science and technology. She holds a BSc in Physics from the University of Bath and an MSc in Climate Change: Environment, Science and Policy from King&#8217;s College London. She was previously <\/em>New Scientist<em>\u2019s social media manager. Contact: <a href=\"mailto:chen.ly@newscientist.com\">chen.ly@newscientist.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/2404057-cop28-when-is-the-climate-summit-and-why-is-it-being-held-in-dubai\/\" >Go to Original &#8211; newscientist.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>World leaders, scientists, activists and more will convene at the UN climate conference in Dubai from 30 Nov to 12 Dec 2023. After a year of extreme weather and the hottest 12 months ever recorded, here\u2019s what you need to know about it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":249095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[686,120,3184,519,401,993,894,124,2876],"class_list":["post-249094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment","tag-climate-change","tag-conflict","tag-cop28","tag-ecology","tag-environment","tag-global-warming","tag-pollution","tag-united-nations","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249094"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":249099,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249094\/revisions\/249099"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}