Governments around the world will meet again to check how policies are being implemented to curb the climate change and adopt new measures to ensure the effectiveness of these policies. Many of the agreements adopted so far in previous summits have not been put into practice, as is the case of economic aid to the poorest countries, and this is one of the main challenges for this COP.

COP28, to begin with, was already surrounded by controversy due to the fact that it had chosen one of the ten oil-producing countries in the world as its host. And not only for that. The president of this summit will be none other than the executive director of the state oil company of the United Arab Emirates, Sultan Al Jaber.

Oil, like gas and coal, is one of the fossil fuels that is directly responsible for the current global warming that is being fought against. For this reason, many countries, organizations and experts do not understand how the head of one of these large oil companies can lead a summit to fight, precisely, fossil fuels.

In fact, The company run by Al Jaber plans to expand its production capacity in the coming yearswhich seems quite far from an amendment purpose.

“It’s the equivalent of appointing the CEO of a tobacco company to oversee a conference on cancer cures,” said the group 350.org, one of the conservation groups that has criticized this situation.

For his part, Al Jaber maintains that precisely by running an oil company he is in a privileged position to reform the oil and gas industry. And he recalls that, as president of the renewable energy company Masdar, he has also promoted the expansion of clean technologies such as wind and solar energy.

The “difficult” challenge of complying with the Paris Agreement

Aside from this controversy, the objective of COP28 is to keep alive the objective of limit long-term global temperature rise to 1.5°C. This limit was agreed by almost 200 countries in Paris in 2015 and is the common guide in the fight against global warming.

The 1.5°C target is crucial to avoiding the most damaging impacts of climate change, according to the UN climate body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

However, own International Energy Agency only a few days ago it was considered “very difficult” to achieve this goal, given that currently the added warming compared to the pre-industrial period is already 1.2ºC. In fact, it is very possible that 1.5ºC will be reached not at the end of the century, but this very decade.

Numerous scientists and official organizations have confirmed in recent months that The world is on track to reach warming of about 2.5°C by 2100, even if the commitments adopted to reduce greenhouse emissions are respected. The chances of maintaining the 1.5°C limit “are rapidly narrowing”, says the UN.

Reduce emissions further and pay poor countries

In reality, the objectives of COP 28 seem to consist of continuing to give a twist to current climate policies to accelerate the reduction of emissions and significantly increase the deployment of clean energy. The goal is to “dramatically reduce” polluting emissions before 2030.

It will not be easy. The powerful lobby oil company, which will once again be present at the COP, is expected to continue defending greater flexibility in decarbonization objectives, something incompatible with the climate emergency situation that the planet is experiencing.

Own Al Jaber has called for a “gradual reduction” of its use, which means a reduction in time, but not a complete cessation. However, the European Union is expected to push for a full “phase out.”

Climate advocates point out that giving up the complete cessation of fossil fuel production means continuing with some production.

But there is a great pending issue on which all eyes will fall. The promised multimillion-dollar aid to poor countries, which are those that have not been responsible for global warming (it has basically been the fault of Western nations), but, on the other hand, they are the ones that are suffering the most from its consequences.

In 2009, developed countries pledged to donate $100 billion a year until 2020 to developing countries to help them reduce emissions and adapt to climate change.

Last year, After more than a decade without results on this issue, COP27 agreed on a “loss and damage fund” so that rich countries pay poor countries for this same concept. However, a year later, it is still unclear how this mechanism will be articulated and, in fact, the US has already ruled out paying climate compensation for its polluting emissions throughout history.

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Contact of the Environment section: crisisclimatica@prensaiberica.es