COP28 was a Disaster
Latest news from the UN Climate Conference COP28 in Dubai, UAE that took place between November 30 to December 12, 2023.
December 12, 2023Today is the last day of the climate conference and the summit is ending with no agreement on phasing out of fossil fuels. Here are the updates:
The total pledged money in the Loss and damage fund has reached only $700 million with no new pledges from the countries. The loss and damage fund was a huge step but the pledges did not even reached a $1 billion.
COP28 is ending with no agreement on phasing out of fossil fuels. The draft released yesterday have no mention of the phrase “ phasing out of fossil fuels”, instead it advises countries to reduce the “consumption and production of fossil fuels, in a just, orderly and equitable manner”. This means the summit was a complete failure.
December 11, 2023Today is the day 11 at COP28 and here are the updates:
COP28 Precidency released a draft text that does not includes anything about phasing out of fossil fuels, leading the summit to a failure.
Brazil will host COP30 and Azerbaijan will host COP29 next year.
Earlier today, a 12 years old Indian climate activist Licypriya Kangujam stormed the COP28 stage calling for phasing out of fossil fuels. According to her mother, she was kicked out of the conference and her badges have been taken away. Such treatment from the host country with a kid who is standing up for her rights is unjust and is not acceptable.
December 10, 2023Today is day 10 of the climate conference and here are all the latest developments:
The International Energy Agency has warned that emissions cutting pledges made by 100 countries and 50 fossil firms are not enough to limit the temperature rise to 1.5°C. The IEA has said that if these emissions pledges are delivered then it will only be able to reduce our emissions which is just the 30% cut of what needs in order to limit the temperature rise.
Draft COP28 text proposes Azerbaijan to be the next host for the 2024 climate summit between November 11 and 22, The Reuters has reported.
Today 350 dot Org activists disrupted the event organised by the oil group OPEC, in which the OPEC's Secretary General was trying to justify why we need oil and gas.
December 9, 2023Today is the day 9 at COP28 and here are the updates:
340 lobbyists from the industrial agriculture industry are present at the COP28, that’s according to the DeSmog. And out of these 340, 120 are from the meat and dairy industry.
An army of 1900 greenwashing bots have been discovered on twitter which is promoting a environmentally friendly image of the climate conference. That’s according to the disinformation expert Marc Owen Jones.
21 countries have endorsed the Mangrove Breakthrough, a project which aims to restore and protect 15 million hectares of mangroves globally by the year 2030.
December 8, 2023Today is the day 8 at the Climate Conference and here are the updates:
Over 800 leaders, scientists, mayor's of European cities and CEOs have written a letter to the COP28 President calling for a deal that keeps 1.5°C within reach. One of the major thing outlined in the letter was phasing out of fossil fuels which was called as “taking World back in cave” by the COP28 president itself. The signatories include mayor of Paris, the architect of the Paris Climate Agreement Christiana Figueres and Sir Richard Branson.
COP28 is finally the most restrictive , according to the civil groups on the ground. They are saying that they aren't allowed to protest, and if they are then it is limited. The protests have been moved to the invisible areas of the Expo city. Protesters calling for the ceasefire now weren't allowed to say this according to the campaigners on the ground.
100 Indigenous leaders and the activists have signed an open letter calling for negotiators to protect Indigenous rights as part of the clean energy transition.
Source: Euronews
December 7, 2023Today there will be no negotiations because its offically the rest day at the summit where delegates will rest, go for shopping or whatever they want.
December 6, 2023Day 7 at COP28 and here are the updates:
According to Copernicus Climate Change Service, 2023 is the hottest year on record.
World’s 10 largest companies are uniting to decarbonize the cement industry. UK’s largest Cemex and United States largest Holcim are planning a new strategy to get to net zero emissions within 25 years. The combined emissions from these two companies are responsible for 8% global greenhouse emissions.
According to the Natural Resources Defense Coucil’s COP28 Fund tracker, no other new country has made any pledges to the loss and damage fund. The total loss and damage fund still stands at $655.9 million.
December 5, 2023Day 6 at COP28 and at the spotlight are energy, just transition and the Indigenous Peoples Day. Here are the updates:
At least, 2456 fossil fuel lobbyists are currently present at the climate conference breaking the previous year record of 636. That’s according to the Kick Big Polluters Out Coalition.
According to a report released by Greenpeace Netherlands, Europe’s 9 biggest oil and gas companies emissions could have caused 360,000 temperature related deaths. The companies includes: Shell, TotalEnergies, BP, Equinor, Eni, Repsol, OMV, Orlen, and Wintershall Dea. The collective emissions of these ten companies which were 2.7 billion metric tonnes of CO2 could have caused 360,000 deaths associated with the increase in temperatures.
60 countiries have signed the pledge to reduce their emissions from cooling. According to UNEP, the emissions from cooling are likely to increase to triple by 2050, with emissions likely to increase between 4.4 billion to 6.1 billion tones of CO2. The pledge aims to reduce emissions by 68% by the year 2050.
December 4, 2023Day 5 at COP28 and climate finance and the gender was at spotlight. Here are the updates:
After saying, “there is no science behind the phasing out of fossil fuels”, the COP28 president called for a preference and made a shocking statement, “We’re here because we very much believe and respect the science”. It is nothing more than trying to overshadow the real intentions.
A Gender Responsive Just Transitions and Climate Action Partnership was announced at the conference which has already been endorsed by 60 parties and aims to address the disproportionate impacts of climate related job loss on women.
Samoa has become the eleventh nation to call for the Non-Proliferation Fossil Fuels Treaty at the climate summit. It is the third country to call for the treaty after Colombia and Palau at the COP28.
December 3, 2023Day 4 at COP28 and here the updates:
COP28 President has finally showed the true side of COP28, said “there is no science behind phasing out of fossil fuels”.
The total money in the Loss and Damage Fund has reached at about $655 million, still not able to reach even a billion dollars.
Portugal has announced a 5 million euros commitment to the Loss and Damage Fund while the Spain has announced that it has increased its commitment to the loss and damage fund by 20 million euros.
Pope Francis has called for an urgent climate action at COP28 through a video message.
December 2, 2023Day 3 at COP28 and here are the updates:
Speaking at a event- “Putting Health on the Climate Agenda”, COP28 president Al Jaber announced that 123 Countries have endorsed the COP28 Declaration on Climate and Health, which seeks to “reduce emissions in the health sector and increase climate-health financing”.
Slovenia has announced 1.5 million Euros to the Loss and Damage Fund at COP28.
Over 20 nations have called for tripling nuclear energy by 2030 to achieve net-zero emission by 2050. we need complete phaseout from fossil fuels.
After Palau, Colombia is the latest country to join the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, bringing the total count of nations endorsing the treaty to 10.
UAE is contributing $100 million to the World Bank’s Methane Trust Fund, which aims to help reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases emissions.
Norway will provide NOK 270 million to the Loss and Damage Fund. Ireland will provide $27.2 million to the loss and damage fund while Finland will provide $3.3 million to the loss and damage fund.
December 1, 2023Day 2 at COP28 saw gathering of more than 130 heads of states that includes Britain’s King Charles III, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Indian PM Narendra Modi, and many others. Here are the updates from the Day 2 at the Climate Conference:
Day 2 also was very important because Palau became the ninth nation state to formally endorse the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty at COP28 in Dubai.
According to the World Meteorological Organization, 2023 would be the hottest year ever recorded.
Two heads of states proposed to host the next two edition of COP in their countries. Turkey’s President Erdoğan proposed to host COP31 in 2026 in his country while Indian PM Modi proposed to host the COP 33 in 2028.
COP28 is the largest ever UN Climate summit with more than 80,000 attendees on the UN's list which also shows for whom they work for because earlier in June, UN made it clear that the attendees needs to clarify in the registration form for who they work for, say fossil fuel industry or any grassroot movement. That was a significant step and the total number of the peoples associated with the fossil fuel lobbying groups is yet to be made public by the Global Witness. Last year, there were more delegates associated with the fossil fuel companies than there were from the worst impacted countries from climate change combined.
The total pledges for the Loss and Damage Fund has reached $500 million dollars. Italy announced 100 million euros while 15 million Euros were announced by the Netherlands to the Loss and Damage Fund. France also pledged 100 million Euros to the Loss and Damage Fund.
The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has urged to "phaseout" fossil fuels at COP28 in Dubai stating, "The 1.5 degree limit is only possible if we ultimately stop burning all fossil fuels- Not Reduce. Not abate. Phaseout".
134 world leaders endorsed the COP28 Declaration on Agriculture and Food, which confronts the global emissions from the agriculture sector and protect the lives and livelihoods of farmers who are at the frontline in facing the worst impacts of climate change.
November 30, 2023COP28 has officially begun from November 30, 2023. Before that we saw the resignation of COP28 president from his position of Adnoc CEO. Adnoc is the biggest oil firm in UAE. Few days ago, BBC also revealed the leaked documents which say UAE is planning to use its role as the host to make new oil and gas deals. The leaked documents revealed the UAE’s plans to use this opportunity to strike deals with 15 nations. Here are the developments that were made on Day 1 of the climate conference:
The opening ceremony was dedicated to the professor Saleemul Huq and Pete Betts who both passed away prior to the COP28, with the Bangladesh recalling the efforts made by Prof. Huq’s in the establishment of Loss and Damage Fund. .
The COP28 started with the announcement for Loss and Damage Fund. Loss and Damage refers to the loss and damage caused by the climate crisis in the MAPA regions (Most Affected Peoples and Area). Such announcements are made usually made at the end of the summits. It can be considered one of the biggest victory in the fight seeking for climate justice because it took 30 years for the countries to get here. But it won’t matter if the host country or other countries secretly strikes any new oil and gas deals. This will only mean they did it on purpose to shift the focus from what is actually happening. COP28 needs to be a meaningful COP where phasing out fossil fuels and investing more on renewable energy should be at focus. As I mentioned earlier, the COP28 started with the announcement of 100 million dollars for loss and damage fund by the host country UAE. It was followed by the announcement of the same amount of money from Germany. The total contributions from UK, US,EU and other are around 400 million dollars for the poor countries facing the consequences of climate change.
The fund was set up last year at COP27 in Egypt where countries agreed to set up a loss and damage fund for the MAPA regions. The UK has agreed to pay 60 million euros which is not enough when taking the historic emissions in account. The EU has promised 275 million dollars to the fund. The US, the world’s largest economy has only agreed to pay 17.5 million dollar to the fund despite the fact it is the second largest country in terms of the carbon emissions each year.
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