UN conference
Climate representative hopes for concrete progress
“It is important that COP28 sends a strong signal,” says climate representative Jennifer Morgan. photo
© Britta Pedersen/dpa
The World Climate Conference begins in Dubai on Thursday. Climate protection officer Jennifer Morgan hopes for concrete progress and “a strong signal”.
Despite global tensions over the wars in the Gaza Strip and Ukraine, the federal government is counting on concrete successes at the world climate conference in Dubai. Tangible progress in the fight against global warming is “possible and urgently necessary,” said the climate protection officer at the Federal Foreign Office, Jennifer Morgan, the German Press Agency in Berlin. “We are working towards that with all our might.”
The UN conference begins on Thursday and is expected to attract 70,000 participants from around 200 countries. The international community is lagging far behind in containing the climate crisis. However, it is questionable whether all countries in Dubai will jointly commit to phasing out the climate-damaging energy sources coal, oil and gas.
A chance for the world
Morgan said all countries are threatened by the climate crisis – and there is the prospect of “much worse impacts” if the planetary pain threshold of 1.5 degrees is exceeded. The climate conference, called COP28 in UN jargon, is an opportunity for the world to make bold decisions together. The transformation towards an economy without coal, gas and oil has been happening for a long time – in Africa, in Latin America, in Asia. “This dynamic and the clear scientific finding that the fossil fuel economy model is being phased out give me hope for a good COP result.”
The international community decided in Paris in 2015 to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees compared to pre-industrial times, and if possible even 1.5 degrees. According to the UN environmental program UNEP, the planet is currently heading towards a world that is almost 3 degrees warmer – with fatal consequences such as increasingly frequent and severe storms, droughts, forest fires, heat waves and floods.
COP28 should send a strong signal
Morgan said a “triad” is needed to accelerate the global energy transition: a global tripling of renewable energy, a doubling of energy efficiency rates, and a gradual, fair phase-out of fossil fuels, initially particularly coal. “Without phasing out fossils, we will not be able to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and keep a 1.5 degree world within reach,” said Morgan. “It is important that COP28 sends a strong signal.”
The former Greenpeace boss praised a new fund to compensate for losses and damage in poor countries, into which all countries should pay voluntarily. This ensures that the developing countries most severely affected by the climate crisis receive support as quickly as possible and that all states that are able to do so now also contribute financially.
“In addition to industrialized countries like Germany, this also includes other wealthy countries – especially states that make a lot of money from fossil energies and those that are among the largest emitters of greenhouse gases.” In the middle of the month, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called on the oil and gas states in the Gulf and also China to pay into the fund.