WASHINGTON DC (July 13, 2023) – Today, Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, president of the COP28 UN climate summit to be held in the United Arab Emirates in November, released his action plan at a Ministerial on Climate Action in Brussels.

Following is a statement from David Waskow, Director, International Climate Action, World Resources Institute:

“The UAE presidency has shared its vision for an impactful COP28 and for the Global Stocktake, including an encouraging emphasis on solutions and the transformational change needed. It is clear the UAE presidency understands how consequential this COP must be. The world will be watching to see whether this ambition is reflected in concrete negotiated outcomes in Dubai and that proposed solutions propel us in the right direction – toward net-zero and climate resilient goals and away from fossil fuels and unsustainable land use. 

“The COP Presidency has highlighted the need to accelerate the essential and inevitable transition away from fossil fuels and comprehensively transform the current financial architecture, with a special focus on supporting the Global South. The agenda also calls for tripling the world’s renewable energy capacity by 2030, doubling energy efficiency, transforming our food systems and operationalizing the loss and damage fund, along with a renewed focus to deliver on previous commitments such as doubling adaptation finance by 2025 and fulfilling the $100 billion goal.  

“As COP28 offers a unique and historic opportunity to correct course through the first-ever Global Stocktake, we welcome the appointment of Ministers to start consultations with countries on critical elements to ensure an impactful outcome.  

“Ultimately, the success of COP28 will hinge on how governments respond to the findings of the Global Stocktake before the final gavel drops — not with vague platitudes but with concrete commitments to real action. For this to happen, countries need to agree in the negotiated outcomes of the Global Stocktake process to rapidly and equitably shift away from fossil fuels and scale up renewables, transform food systems, shift to fossil-fuel free transport, ramp up climate finance for adaptation and loss and damage, align global finance flows at scale from dirty to clean energy, and follow through on commitments to ensure the outcomes don’t become mere promises on paper.  

“It is also essential that the COP28 action agenda fully tackle the energy transition. Commitments during COP28 on technologies such as hydrogen should focus on zero-carbon approaches and help shift us clearly away from fossil fuels, while any announcements by the oil and gas industry will need to extend beyond the industry’s own operations to tackle the impacts from the burning of the fossil fuels they produce. 

“The Global Stocktake decision must also motivate countries to set ambitious 2030 and 2035 commitments, while COP28 should agree on bringing the Loss and Damage Fund into full operation and make way for real progress on the framework for a new post-2025 climate finance goal. 

“As the world struggles to adapt to increasingly frequent climate impacts, incremental steps are not an option. It is vital that countries lay out a roadmap for transformational action on climate, food, and health security to protect people’s lives and livelihoods. The Global Stocktake at COP28 should not just be a catalogue of our failures, but a global springboard to keep 1.5°C and climate-resilient development pathways within reach.”