UAE geared to fulfil Paris Climate Agreement
The 28th United Nations (UN) Conference of Parties on Climate Change (CoP28) President Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber says he is determined to deliver on the most ambitious response to the global stocktake.
Global stocktake is an assessment of progress made by countries and stakeholders towards mitigating global warming and meeting the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement to limit the warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by reducing carbon emissions.
Addressing a press conference on Monday to highlight the successes registered so far at the on-going CoP28 Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Al Jaber said the standards have been set high to put the world on the right track of keeping 1.5 degrees Celsius within reach.
He said: “The 43 percent of global emissions must be reduced by 2030. This must happen. We fully understand the urgency of this matter as we believe and respect science.
“[So far] at CoP28, we have brought together the United States and China in an unprecedented commitment to an economy-wide reduction of methane and other non-carbon dioxide gasses. These gasses are over 80 times more damaging than carbon.”
Al Jaber, who is also Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology of the UAE, also told journalists that the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which advances scientific knowledge about climate change caused by human activities, has been very instrumental in helping the presidency deliver a resilient, science-based agenda.
“I am especially proud that we have delivered the first-ever declarations on health and food systems. These are two massive priorities for our CoP28 presidency action agenda. Three additional declarations will be announced in the coming days on hydrogen, cooling and gender,” he added.
In his remarks, the IPCC chairperson Jim Skea said science should be embraced for a progressive climate action at the global level.
“We have had discussions with Al Jaber and he fully understood it,” he said.
The 2023 IPCC findings on climate change show that human-induced global warming of 1.1 degrees Celsius through usage of fossil fuels has exacerbated the crisis.
