COP28 in Dubai starts with the UAE leading climate initiatives, but concerns arise over attention-grabbing pledges potentially diverting from crucial issues like fossil fuels and formal negotiations. Meanwhile, nations will collaborate to achieve a global renewable energy generation capacity of at least 11,000 gigawatts by the decade’s end.
The COP28 climate talks in Dubai have begun with a flurry of announcements promising action on global warming, led by its big-spending, oil-rich host the United Arab Emirates. But observers have warned that the headline-grabbing pledges could distract from the real battles on fossil fuels and negotiating a formal COP28 text at the end of the two-week talks.
As pressure builds during what is expected to be the hottest year on record, here are some major funding pledges and declarations announced so far at COP28.
Loss and damage
The first day of the talks Thursday saw the official launch of a “loss and damage” fund to help vulnerable countries cope with the increasingly costly and damaging impacts of climate disasters.
The UAE and Germany pledged $100 million each, France $109 million, $50 million from Britain, $25 million from Denmark and $17.5 million from the United States, the world’s biggest historical polluter.
Campaigners said the US offering was woefully inadequate.
The total committed as of Saturday was some $653 million, according to a tally by the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group.
That falls vastly short of the $100 billion a year that developing nations, which have historically been least responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, have said are needed to cover losses from natural disasters.
Tripling renewables
Some 116 countries committed Saturday to triple renewable energy capacity worldwide by 2030 and double the annual rate of energy efficiency improvements.
G20 nations, which account for nearly 80 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, paved the way for a deal when they endorsed the renewable energy goal in September.
The countries will “work together” to bring global renewable energy generation capacity to at least 11,000 gigawatts by the end of the decade, said the COP28 presidency. COP28 president Sultan Al Jaber said 117 countries had signed up, one more than previously announced by the hosts of UN negotiations, though the final number was expected to grow.
Tripling nuclear
More than 20 countries, led by the US, called on Saturday for the tripling of world nuclear energy capacity by 2050. While nuclear generates almost no greenhouse gases, the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011 dealt it a severe blow.
But experts and activists point to the fact that new nuclear plants can take decades, while renewable energy is rising fast.
Food and farming
More than 130 countries have agreed to prioritize food and agriculture systems in their national climate plans.
The non-binding declaration was welcomed by observers, with food systems estimated to be responsible for roughly a third of human-made greenhouse gases.
However some criticized it for lacking concrete goals and not mentioning fossil fuels or signaling any change to more sustainable diets.
Healthy future?
Over 120 countries signed up to a declaration to “place health at the heart of climate action.” It called for governments to step up action on climate-related health impacts like extreme heat, air pollution and infectious diseases.
Almost nine million people a year die from polluted air, while 189 million are exposed to extreme weather-related events.
The declaration notes “the benefits for health from deep, rapid and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions,” but makes no direct reference to the fossil fuels responsible for most human-caused pollution. COP28’s themed day on health is Sunday.
UAE Climate Investment fund
The UAE said it is putting $30 billion into a new private climate investment fund.
The oil-rich COP28 host said that the fund, called Alterra, would partly try to focus on climate projects in the developing world, and hoped to stimulate investments totaling $250 billion by 2030.
Israel-Hamas War
French President Emmanuel Macron appealed Saturday for intensified efforts to reach a lasting ceasefire in Gaza, a day after deadly fighting resumed between Israel and Hamas militants after a truce expired. “This situation requires stepped-up efforts to reach a lasting ceasefire,” to free all hostages held by Hamas, allow more urgently needed aid into Gaza, and assure Israel of its security, he told a news conference on the sidelines of the UN’s COP28 climate talks in Dubai.
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Miroslava Salazar, with AFP
