UAE at the Copenhagen Climate Conference
He carries with him the UAE’s vision and plan for the future. He is the President of COP28, Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, who considered during his participation in the Copenhagen Climate Conference that there is a global need to expand energy production from available emissions-free sources, coupled with tireless work to reduce carbon emissions.
The Copenhagen conference, which lasted for two days and was attended by more than 40 government ministers, is the first high-level political meeting to be held after the COP27 summit and aims to pave the way for the COP28 conference.
Dr. Al Jaber indicated that the UAE seeks, through its hosting of the COP28 climate summit, to develop the foundations laid in COP27. And that the time has come to move from the stage of setting goals and plans to put them into practice, in line with the vision of the UAE leadership keeping pace with all developments at all levels, especially since the world, according to environmental and climatic studies and reports, is still far from achieving the goal of avoiding an increase in the temperature of the planet. And that the world needs tangible and radical progress and serious work during the next seven years to mitigate the effects of climate change. This requires expanding energy production from sources that do not produce emissions and reducing emissions from traditional sources.
Based on the UAE's plan and vision to combat climate change, Dr. Sultan Al-Jaber called on governments to adopt intelligent policies, which must work to stimulate commercially viable solutions, such as improving energy storage systems using batteries, reducing the cost of carbon capture, not to mention the development of hydrogen technologies.
Dr. Al-Jaber also revealed that COP28, hosted by the UAE next fall, will work on a practical and realistic transition to the energy sector and focus on stopping carbon emissions, in conjunction with not abandoning the current energy system until the future energy system is ready.
Dr. Al-Jaber believed there is a need to benefit from the progress achieved by the COP27 summit, in addition to activating the Loss and Damages Fund and managing it properly. From his point of view, "climate financing is the basis for progress, and there is an opportunity to set new financing targets at the COP28 climate summit that contribute to Charting a new path for a greater climate ambition" and called for developing the performance of international financial institutions and multilateral development banks, to provide additional funds, reduce risks and work to attract funds from the private sector, and stressed that the world is moving forward in partnership, not closure.
The UAE is aware that the task that falls upon it is one of the most significant challenges that humanity has faced. Still, it has realized the importance of the issues at hand. It will turn this challenge into one of the most significant opportunities for social and economic development because it is the most capable of crossing the world towards clean energy.