Climate commissioner hopes for concrete progress at UN conference
Despite global tensions due to the wars in the Gaza Strip and Ukraine, the German 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 needed", said Jennifer Morgan, Climate Protection Commissioner at the Federal Foreign Office, to the German Press Agency in Berlin. "We are working towards this with all our might."
The UN conference begins on Thursday and 70,000 participants from around 200 countries are expected to attend. 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 of coal, oil and gas.
An opportunity for the world
Morgan said that all countries are threatened by the climate crisis - and there is the prospect of "even worse consequences" if the planetary threshold of 1.5 degrees is exceeded. The climate conference, known as COP28 in UN jargon, is an opportunity for the world to make bold decisions together. The transformation to an economy without coal, gas and oil has long been underway - in Africa, Latin America and Asia. "This momentum and the clear scientific findings that the fossil fuel economic model is a thing of the past give me hope for a good COP outcome."
In Paris in 2015, the international community decided to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees compared to pre-industrial times, preferably even 1.5 degrees. According to the UN Environment 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, heatwaves and floods.
COP28 should send a strong signal
Morgan said that a "triad" was needed to accelerate the global energy transition: a global tripling of renewable energies, a doubling of the energy efficiency rate and a gradual, equitable phase-out of fossil fuels, initially coal in particular. "Without phasing out fossil fuels, 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 states are to make voluntary contributions. This will ensure that the developing countries most severely affected by the climate crisis receive support as quickly as possible and that all countries that are in a position to do so now also contribute financially.
"In addition to industrialized countries such as Germany, this also includes other wealthy countries - especially countries that earn a lot of money with fossil fuels and those that are among the biggest 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 China in particular to contribute to the fund.
Source: www.dpa.com
