Why are we going to COP28 and why does it matter?

As you probably know, COP28 UAE starts this week. As I'm preparing to join the World Bank delegation, I want to share a few thoughts on why we are going there and why it is important.

If you’ve followed previous COPs, or the Conferences of the Parties, you’ll know that these are the most important annual international gatherings on climate change, bringing together countries year after year to address the climate crisis.

This COP marks the halfway point between the 2015 Paris Agreement and its 2030 targets – and we are far from being on track. We need to do more, make bolder commitments and, perhaps more importantly, strengthen our collective ambition.

We see how climate-related disasters, more and more frequent and greater in intensity, destroy lives and livelihoods, forcing communities and countries to take a few steps, if not miles, backwards on their development journey. What is obvious is that we cannot do development without tackling climate change. And we are in a race against time.

世界银行 vision reflects our commitment and ambition to end poverty on a livable planet. The future of the planet – livable or not – is in our hands and COP is a place where decisions are made about our collective future.

Such decisions are critical to safeguard a planet under threat and have a direct impact on the shared experiences of the people I’ve met from Chad to Sri Lanka to Tajikistan, among so many other places.

At COP, the world will be looking to us to deliver solutions at scale – financing yes, but also seizing exciting opportunities from carbon markets to methane emission reduction. Finding solutions that work for our clients and stakeholders, and that accelerate climate action.

We know that the path to a resilient, net-zero future requires different pathways, policies and programs from country to country. There is no one-size-fits-all. Countries who contributed the least to climate change are most at risk, but they also have urgent development needs.

The good news: Expanding clean energy access and meeting climate goals can and should be done simultaneously. And there is no reason why countries can’t increase farm yields while adapting to climate change and preserving the planet. ??

Throughout COP28, we will be sharing solutions that have demonstrated transformative results for people and planet and that we can replicate and scale up.

From the role of fiscal policies in incentivizing transformation to lower greenhouse-gas emissions to mobilizing climate finance; from responding to the threats posed by climate change in fragility, conflict and violence settings to ensuring climate action is led by people and communities who are the forefront of climate impacts – including women and young people – all of these will be at the center of our engagement at COP28.

I will be reporting from #COP28. Stay tuned, stay engaged.?