It’s that time of year again, the annual COP is back!
COP 28 started on the 30th of November and finished on the 12th of December. It was held in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. If you did not know already, COP stands for “Conference of the Parties”, and it is annual event that is organised by the UN. The aim is to discuss climate agreements in order to make positive and definite changes that will have a beneficial impact on the current state of the environment.
Nevertheless, this year’s COP has already stirred up some controversies. Sultan Al Jaber, chief executive of an oil company, was elected to be the President of the COP28 talks. This was considered controversial not only because oil is a fossil fuel, and is a main cause of global warming, but also because Mr. Jaber’s oil company plans to expand business. It was also rumored that the UAE had planned to use COP 28 as a way of striking new oil and gas deals with the attendees.
This is completely against the objective of the conference. So, on a more positive side, here are some of the goals that COP 28 aims to work towards:
Transferring to clean energy by 2030, to limit global warming temperature to 1.5°C.
Helping vulnerable communities, “Put nature, people, lives and livelihoods at the heart of climate action”.
Giving financial aid to developing countries to make climate action more affordable and accessible.
Mobilizing inclusivity; making sure all people and local communities can be equally involved.
For more information, you can consult the official website:
During the conference, on December 11th, a twelve-year-old activist stormed on stage with a sign that said "End fossil fuels. Save our planet and our future.". As she was escorted away, the audience was clapping. Nevertheless, Licypriya Kangujam was banned from attending the rest of the conference. She was not the only one who was upset with the direction of the conference, more than 100 young activists stood outside the conference to protest.
The protestors had reason to be angry, as the outcomes of the conference were not as impressive as them were deemed to be. No decisive plans were made, instead the conference ended with the vague statement, “(Nations need to) transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems.” In addition, they decided that the next conference would be held in Azerbaijan, another country that economically dependent on fossil fuels. They also decided that COP 30 will be held in Brazil, hopefully by then the global leaders will have resolved all the current tensions that have been exacerbated with COP 28.
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