COP28, this year’s big United Nations climate change summit, opens in Dubai today. With its ambitious and progressive agenda to triple renewable energy capacity and double the rate of energy efficiency in the world, this COP agenda has exceeded initial expectations with its vision. For its own part, the UAE has already announced its own $4.5 billion fund for Africa’s clean energy initiatives and a $54 billion investment plan to triple renewable energy by 2030.
COP28 presents a crucial opportunity for the UAE to be an influential catalyst for change. But to make history, the need of the hour is bold and rapid momentum.
At Greenpeace MENA, we agree with the COP28 President, Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, that reducing all fossil fuels is both inevitable and essential, but we believe that the shared ambition of this COP summit should go further and include the equitable phasing out (and not just phasing down) of all fossil fuels including oil, gas and coal. While we acknowledge that this presents challenges, particularly to countries whose economies are heavily reliant up on oil and gas production, the challenge to make the transition to fossil-free energy systems a fair one is something we must embrace with courage, ambition and innovation – all of which the UAE possesses in abundance.
Greenpeace MENA feels the COP28 proposal, if it is to be sufficient to meet the planet’s needs, needs to go beyond its “mid century” timeline for the phasing down of fossil fuels – because we need to cut emissions right now. One reason is because the vision relies on developing carbon capture. If we go down this route, together with reliance on carbon offsets, we will delay climate action and derail efforts away from attaining the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5°C.
Why is it so important that we get agreement on an equitable phasing out now and not later? What is the urgency?
In a year when the world saw record temperatures and in our region thousands of people died in floods in Libya and Algeria and wildfires spread across Syria, Tunisia and Lebanon, world leaders must remember that we are not counting down to the start of a climate emergency. Climate disaster is already a daily reality for the world’s most vulnerable communities. People with the least resources to defend themselves are seeing their homes reduced to ashes, their lives shattered, and livelihoods obliterated. Yemen – already one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises – has suffered drought and extensive lightning storms that have killed more than 100 people. In Iraq more than 80,000 people have been displaced due to drought. Morocco too has recorded its highest ever temperature.
When balancing the desire for corporate profits with the needs of ordinary people, it is imperative to remember the genuine suffering that people are enduring. So many of them are literally immersed in a daily struggle for survival. Every passing day without real change becomes a sentence of hardship or even death for these communities. This is the essence of climate justice.
To survive this crisis, we also need a reckoning that forces historical fossil fuel polluters to start paying to fix the crisis they have caused. On that, we welcome the UAE’s firm commitment to climate finance on the COP28 agenda. A fully operationalised loss-and-damage fund is a fundamental question of climate justice, holding these historical emitters, both countries and companies, that are the most responsible for climate change, accountable for their environmental impact. Such a fund will support developing countries to deal with the negative consequences that arise from the unavoidable risks of climate change – addressing an unjust global system in which rich countries have for centuries enabled the fossil fuel industry to generate huge profits out of them, while at the same time being exempt from any responsibility to pay for the destruction and harm they have caused.
The solutions are ready. We strongly believe that there’s no reason why governments cannot solve this crisis right now. A landmark agreement from world leaders at the summit to equitably phase out fossil fuels and operationalise an effective Loss and Damage fund will send a very strong message to the rest of the world, cementing real climate leadership that we so badly need. It only requires a collective effort and a shared vision of a sustainable and just future for all.
The UAE has always been a pioneer across a broad spectrum of inspiring initiatives, showing the world what’s possible when vision, determination and action come together. This is a genuine opportunity to champion a legacy of a greener future for the coming generations. At our recent climate justice camp in Lebanon, young people from across the Global South raised their voices with unwavering determination, sending a powerful and unequivocal message: the time for action is now.
We all care deeply about this region and its people, its societies, and the unique and complex environment-related challenges it faces. We must act swiftly, without compromise, and with unwavering commitment. Change starts with us, and COP28 provides a dynamic platform for us to come together and create a sustainable future for all.
Ghiwa Nakat
Executive director Greenpeace MENA
The 28th UN Climate Conference is taking place at the end of a year when we saw record temperatures, thousands of people dying in floods in Libya and Algeria and wildfires spreading across Syria, Tunisia, and Lebanon. We are in a race against the climate crisis clock and it’s accelerating fast, so world leaders need to act faster.