28th World Climate Summit in Dubai
Delegations from almost 200 countries, including Poland, are taking part in the discussions. In total, some 70 000 people are attending the 28th edition of the summit, including: ministers, negotiators, activists, industrialists and religious leaders. The summit will last until 12 December this year.
Already on the first day (30 November), a breakthrough was achieved. Almost all countries in the world decided to set up a fund to help countries struggling with floods, heatwaves and droughts caused by climate change. Developing countries have long tried to address the problem of insufficient funding for the negative effects of climate change, which hit poorer countries particularly hard. These countries are only marginally responsible for climate change, as it is the rich and industrialised countries that emit most of the heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. A recent United Nations report estimates that as much as USD 387 billion a year will be needed to adapt developing countries to climate change. So far, the Green Climate Fund, which was first proposed at the Copenhagen meeting in 2009, has not even come close to the target of USD 100 billion a year.
During this year’s discussions, contributions of USD 100 million to the solidarity fund were pledged by, among others, Germany and the United Arab Emirates. Unfortunately, the leaders of the countries playing a key role in global climate policy – the Presidents of the USA and China – are absent from COP 28. However, climate envoys from both countries: John Kerry and Xie Zhenhua, will attend.
As experts note, the Dubai conference will be an opportunity for a first global review of climate action, which is an essential element of the 2015 Paris Agreement, in order to monitor its implementation and assess collective progress towards the agreed goals. The time has therefore come to assess the efforts made in recent years by countries, communities and business to reduce greenhouse gases, adapt to climate change and increase funding levels.
In his address to the plenary, European Council President Charles Michel called for increased and rapid global action to keep the global temperature rise within 1.5 degrees. He also underlined the EU’s full commitment to climate neutrality and the need to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels as soon as possible. As a representative of the EU, he pledged that member states would take intensive action to triple current renewable energy production and significantly increase energy efficiency.
The EU is the world’s largest public financier of climate change action. In Dubai, President Charles Michel stressed that member states are meeting their financial commitments set out in the Paris Agreement. This year alone, the EU has committed EUR 23 billion to the climate fund, and at the same time announced a further EUR 220 million in contributions to help the poorer and most vulnerable countries. In his speech, Charles Michel also called for a reform of international financial institutions to make them more accessible and fairer.
The Polish delegation attending the summit signed a declaration on Saturday, 2 December, to triple nuclear power generation capacity by 2050, increase and facilitate financing for nuclear power plant construction, and promote nuclear energy as clean energy.
More than 20 countries have adopted this declaration on top of Poland, including the United States, France, Romania, Finland, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Sweden and Bulgaria.
Sources: www.consilium.europa.eu and Klimat
