COP 28: Navigating the Climate Crisis - Key Issues and Solutions to Watch at the Upcoming UAE Climate Summit

The United Arab Emirates is set to host the 28th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2023. As the world struggles to meet its climate goals, COP 28 will be a crucial summit for addressing key issues such as mitigation, adaptation, finance, and loss and damage.

Sultan al-Jaber, the president of COP 28, has emphasized the need for the summit to move from setting goals to taking action. The 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 27) was recognized for progress in "loss and damage" financing, but faced criticism for its lack of progress on other climate goals.

“We want it to be a COP that moves from goals to getting it done across mitigation, adaptation, finance and loss and damage.”

-Sultan al-Jaber

As COP 28 approaches, several key issues will shape the agenda for the year ahead. These include the operationalization of the loss and damage fund, which will require answers to questions about funding and eligibility. Climate finance is also a major focus, with high-income countries facing pressure to meet their annual goal of mobilizing $100 billion for adaptation financing by 2020 and reform international financial institutions such as the World Bank to increase investment in climate efforts. Development experts have also called for the United Nations to give the World Bank a mandate to monitor countries' commitment to cutting greenhouse gas emissions and accelerate the global energy transition.

Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs) are Group of Seven-led partnerships using blended finance to help emerging economies transition away from coal to a more green energy mix, but greater resources are needed to encourage and enable them to follow new development models under binding environmental constraints.

The UN launched a $3.1 billion plan at COP 27 to establish a global early warning system, which will require funding over the next five years and will be led by an advisory board co-chaired by the heads of World Meteorological Organization and the U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, with a focus on identifying gaps, assessing capabilities, and securing funding for implementation in countries with high risk and government capacity and willingness.

The first Global Stocktake, a process for assessing the implementation of the Paris Agreement globally, will conclude at COP 28 and will include key findings from the current technical assessment period which focuses on the stocktake's three themes of mitigation, adaptation, and implementation and support, and is part of a two-year process that happens every five years.

At COP 27, countries decided to establish a framework for achieving the Global Goal on Adaptation, which was established in the Paris Agreement to drive collective action on climate adaptation, and will be discussed during workshops in the lead-up to COP 28 and considered and adopted at COP 28 in November.

Food systems will also be an important topic at COP 28, as countries will push for a new four-year plan on agriculture and food security that includes a food systems approach, key interventions such as nutrition and dietary shifts, adaptation and mitigation work plans, and more.

Overall, COP 28 will be a critical summit for addressing the pressing issues facing the global community in the fight against climate change. With the world far off course in achieving its climate goals, it is imperative that the summit moves from setting targets to taking action and finding concrete solutions to the challenges at hand.