What’s NEXT? COP 28 deliverd ‘historic’ consensus!

By S R Ranjan: Looking ahead, let’s us all congratulate the world leaders, heads of states, governments and the people all across countries who acknowledge the fact the ‘climate change’ is reality and the world must come together for global climate action. “The climate emergency is a race we are losing, but it is a race we can win”.

The COP 28 Climate Summit in Dubai was a manifestation of “walking the talk” on the global climate action promises. The world, for the first time witnessed many agreements that were reached on global climate actions. It was momentous as COP28 marked the conclusion of the world’s first ‘global stocktake’ of the world’s efforts to address climate change under the Paris Agreement.  Most of countries in the world agreed to “transition away from fossil fuels”, the main driver of greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.

The call on nations to transition away from fossil fuels was part of a decision by nearly 200 Parties on the ‘global stocktake’. The ‘stocktake’ recognized the science that indicates global greenhouse gas emissions need to be cut 43% by 2030, compared to 2019 levels, to limit global warming to 1.5°C. It called on Parties to take climate actions towards achieving, at a global scale, a tripling of renewable energy capacity and doubling energy efficiency improvements by 2030.

At COP 28, world leaders and countries responded with a decision on how to accelerate climate actions — from strengthening resilience to a changing climate, to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, to getting the financial and technological support to vulnerable nations — across all areas by 2030.

In a global effort, COP 28 marked some major steps forward to address the climate emergency. The list includes accelerating efforts towards the phase-down of unabated coal power, phasing out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies. Another historic agreement at the COP 28 was the operationalization of funding arrangements for addressing loss and damage. In moments after the decision, commitment to ‘loss and damage fund’ started with more than USD 600 million showing solidarity for the urgency of the climate emergency and climate justice.

In another step forward, agreement was reached on targets for the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) and its framework. This will identify where the world needs to get to in order to be resilient to the impacts of a changing climate and to assess countries’ efforts. The Green Climate Fund (GCF) received a boost, as the ‘global stocktake’ highlighted the significance of reforming multilateral financial architecture, scaling up climate finance through grants and concessional finance and accelerating the ongoing establishment of new and innovative sources of finance.

In the ‘global stocktake’, nature-based solutions were also recognized. COP 28 resulted in linking climate action efforts with nature conservation so as to address both the climate and biodiversity crises. Emphasis was laid on the importance of conserving, protecting and restoring nature and ecosystems towards achieving the ‘Paris Agreement’ temperature goal by protecting terrestrial and marine ecosystems.

Besides, in parallel with the formal negotiations, COP 28 provided a platform for governments, businesses and civil society to collaborate and showcase their practical climate solutions. As a matter of fact, a lot of people — civil society members, NGOs, national and local organizations, institutions, philanthropies, youths and individuals  — are delving in climate actions and solutions to combat the climate crisis, find climate justice and minimize the impacts of climate change.

We have no time to spare and have to Act Now. Every year would be critical and the world needs to implement on ground what have been unanimously agreed upon. Parties agreed to Azerbaijan as host of COP 29 from November 11-22, 2024 and Brazil as COP 30 host from November 10-21, 2025. “In early 2025, countries must deliver new nationally determined contributions. Every single commitment, on finance, adaptation, and mitigation, must bring us in line with a 1.5-degree world," said UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell. 

 - S.R.Ranjan

 (Singh Rakesh Ranjan)

Freelance Journalist

 (Inputs: UN Climate Change)

(Representational images, Sources)

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