Reflecting on Climate Talks
This week, as world leaders gather in Dubai for the 28th round of UN climate talks, I’ve been reflecting on the one-and-only climate negotiations that I’ve attended: the infamous 2009 Conference of the Parties (COP) 15 in Copenhagen. I’d never been to anything like it — tens of thousands of people, from activists, to scientists, to world leaders, all descending on a single conference center to hash out an international agreement. I was young, and probably more idealistic, and like many, I had high hopes that COP15 would be the place where, finally, we’d get a planet-saving plan. Of course, those hopes were not fulfilled. The conference was widely regarded as a failure. Countries formally agreed that it was important to halt global warming at 2 degrees Celsius, but didn’t get much farther than that. Fourteen years later, as the impacts of rising temperatures manifest all around us, negotiators are still trying to come together to limit global heating to less catastrophic levels.
As COP28 enters its second week, it’s been hard to recapture the sense of hope I felt back in Copenhagen. Part of that has to do with the fact that progress has been far too slow over the intervening years. And part of it has to do with this year’s negotiations specifically. COP28 is being hosted by the United Arab Emirates, one of the highest oil-producing countries in the world, and led by oil executive Sultan Al Jaber. Leaked documents ahead of the talks revealed that the UAE planned to use its role as the host as an opportunity to strike oil and gas deals with at least 15 nations. Meanwhile, a record number of fossil fuel lobbyists — more than 2,400 — have been given access to the talks. A paltry $700 million have been pledged to the nascent “loss and damage fund” meant to compensate developing countries for the $400 billion in annual losses they are already feeling from global heating. And as time slips away for us to keep heating to 1.5 or even 2 degrees Celsius, global carbon emissions are still rising.
Thankfully, there is also some good news to hold onto. For one, the mere establishment of the loss and damage fund represents an important step towards building equity into the global climate framework. There’s also a recent poll finding that 78 percent of people worldwide think it is “essential that our government does whatever it takes to limit the effects of climate change.” In other words, the popular will for decisive, perhaps drastic, action is there. Which means, hopefully, elected officials are about to catch on and show the type of real leadership we need on the issue.
It may not fully happen in Dubai. But we’ll get there. We have to.
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