Addressing the climate crisis at COP28 : controversies and what to expect 

The highly anticipated COP28 summit is right around the corner and has stirred substantial controversy. With the host being the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the United Nations' latest release on the world being far off achieving the Paris Agreement goals of limiting the global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius, there will certainly be interesting conversations happening at this year's summit.

What is COP 28 and why is it attracting controversy? 

COP28, the 28th installment of the 'conference of the parties' on climate change, convenes as a result of a UN treaty which was signed by over 150 nations committed to combating climate change. Scheduled to run from November 30th to December 12th, the event selects its host nation to represent one of the five UN regions, with the UAE standing for Asia. However, the UAE's positioning as a host has drawn considerable backlash, chiefly stemming from its position among the top 10 oil-producing countries and the appointment of Sultan Al Jaber as its COP president.

Sultan Al Jaber is the CEO of the UAE’s national oil company and critics are raising concerns arguing his position represents too great a conflict of interest. A group of more than 100 EU and US politicians have called for Al Jaber to step down as COP president, with no success. Supporters of his appointment believe that Al Jaber’s industry background will be beneficial for the negotiations. 

What is likely to be discussed on this year’s agenda? 

As the newly published UN report outlined that we are not on track to meet the Paris Climate Agreement goals, and past COPs have struggled to reach a consensus on proposed solutions amongst countries, there is pressure to outline a realistic roadmap in this summit. The global stockade’s results, which were published earlier this year, will also be discussed at the beginning of the summit. The scorecard will evaluate how much progress has been made and how far off countries are in achieving climate commitments. The course correction of the global stockade will underpin much of the discussions. 

One key conversation this year is likely to be a continuation of COP27 surrounding the phase-out or phase-down of fossil fuels. Last year several countries rejected the proposal of a fossil fuel phase-out. This debate will likely take centre stage once again with countries taking a divided stance on the matter.  There have already been some discussions on this issue which have outlined the stances that are likely to be taken by certain countries. With the latest commitment from the climate ministers of the G7 countries to “accelerate the phase-out of unabated fossil fuels”, in hopes of achieving net zero in energy systems by 2050, at the latest, it is likely that they, as well as the EU, will push for a phase-out in the summit. The oil and gas-rich UAE has already voiced reservations about a fossil fuel phase-out and has hinted towards wanting to take a fossil fuel phase-down approach. 

The loss and damage fund is also likely to be another focus of COP28. The fund was introduced as part of COP27, solutions to compensate for damages resulting from climate change. However, it has not become operational yet.