What is COP28? And other questions about the big UN climate summit

Two facts loom large at the United Nations climate talks that start in Dubai on November 30: the planet is heading towards climate catastrophe, and governments are acting too slowly to avert the crisis.

Diplomats from nearly 200 countries, and many heads of state and government, will meet to try to formulate a plan to accelerate the global transition away from fossil fuels, because burning them dangerously warms the Earth.

The two-week conference is convened annually by the United Nations.

At last year’s summit in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, countries agreed to establish a fund to help poor, vulnerable countries deal with climate disasters made worse by the greenhouse gases pumped into the atmosphere by industrialized countries. But they made little progress in reducing those emissions. A proposal to phase out fossil fuels was thwarted by countries that produce and use gas, oil and coal. And Egypt, the host country, made agreements on the sidelines of the summit to sell natural gas to Europe.

This year the United Arab Emirates, the world’s fifth-largest oil producer, is hosting the climate talks. That has angered many activists and made negotiations more difficult. The conference also takes place against the backdrop of geopolitical turmoil, including wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, making cooperation between countries even more difficult.

What is COP28?

COP stands for Conference of the Parties, where ‘parties’ refer to the 197 countries that signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992.

By signing that agreement, countries pledged to address “dangerous human interference in the climate system” and stabilize levels of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere. The UN climate body convenes these governments once a year to discuss how they can jointly tackle climate change.

This is the 28th time that countries have met under the convention, hence COP28.

When is COP28?

The conference officially runs from November 30 to December 12. But climate negotiations are contentious and usually end in overtime.

Where is COP28?

The meetings will be held at Expo City Dubai, an area described as a ‘forward-looking mini-city’ linked to central Dubai by a rail system.

There are two main locations for the event: the Blue Zone and the Green Zone. The Blue Zone is where official negotiations will take place and where world leaders will speak. The Green Zone is more widely accessible and is a venue for exhibitions and side events organized by youth and community organisations, academics, business groups and others.

What is the purpose of COP28?

Look forward to three key outcomes from this summit.

The first is what is called the global inventory. This is the first formal assessment of whether countries are on track to meet the goal they set in Paris in 2015 to limit the increase in global average temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit ) above pre-industrial levels.

That’s the threshold above which scientists say it will become increasingly difficult for humans to cope with the severe storms, droughts, heat and sea level rise that will intensify as the planet continues to warm. Spoiler alert: The planet has already warmed by 1.2 degrees Celsius, and the emissions driving this change are going up, not down. The assessment will lay the foundation for ambitious actions countries must take in the future, activists hope.

Secondly, there are expectations that countries will finalize the so-called ‘Loss and Damages Fund’ that they agreed to create last year. The key questions to be resolved include who will pay into the fund and who will have access to the money.

Finally, there is the political agreement that could emerge from the summit. It is likely that countries can agree on a deal to replace polluting fossil fuels with clean energy such as wind and solar power. The question is whether countries agree to phase out fossil fuels and, if so, what caveats are associated with this.

Why is COP28 being held in an oil producing country?

The United Nations rotates where the COP will be held each year in its regions (Africa, Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Western Europe). The United Arab Emirates made a bid to host, and the other countries in the Asia-Pacific group supported it. The UAE then appointed Sultan Al Jaber, the head of its state oil company, as chairman of the climate summit.

Who will be present at COP28?

More than 36,000 delegates – including negotiators, observers and media – are expected to attend the event, according to the United Nations climate body. The Emirati presidency said it expected around 70,000 people to attend the events.

Hundreds of world leaders have said they will attend, including King Charles III and Pope Francis. But the White House has not said whether President Biden will attend. President Xi Jinping of China has also not announced whether he will attend.

How will wars impact COP28?

The war between Israel and Hamas, and, to a lesser extent, Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine, have certainly diverted attention from the climate talks. The conflicts have also weakened the prospect of rich countries delivering on climate finance promises to poor countries, as many industrialized countries provide emergency aid to Israel, Gaza and Ukraine.

The war between Israel and Hamas has prompted Israel to limit its participation in COP28. Israel planned to send a delegation of about 1,000 people both to celebrate the Abraham Accords normalizing relations between Israel and the Emirates and to showcase Israeli renewable energy companies.

Maya Kadosh, Israel’s national coordinator for COP28, declined to give a precise number but said that instead of hundreds of Israeli representatives, there would be dozens.

“It will not be the COP we had hoped for,” Ms Kodesh said. Still, she said, there will be an Israeli pavilion in the blue zone. Instead of involving 30 Israeli clean energy companies, she said the government is aiming to bring in five Gaza-based companies, for which it is providing financing.

“It is very important for us to be there,” Ms. Kadosh said. “Firstly, to be part of the international agenda. And I also think that if we didn’t come, it would be another victory for our enemies.”

Will there be protests at COP28?

The United Arab Emirates said it would allow environmentalists to “make their voices heard” and gather peacefully at COP28.

That was before the October 7 massacre by Hamas and Israel’s subsequent airstrikes and invasion of Gaza, which sparked emotional protests on both sides of the conflict. While the Emirates has privately assured several national delegations that they will be safe at the summit, they have offered no public updates on demonstrations.

The Voices for Action hub, located in the Green Zone, next to the Mobility Entrance, will be the available space for climate activists to hold demonstrations, the COP presidency said.

What happened at previous COPs?

The first COP took place in Berlin in 1995, after a critical mass of countries had ratified the climate treaty. It was a milestone and two years later formed the basis for the Kyoto Protocol, which was an important global climate agreement at the time.

But the Kyoto Protocol only required rich, industrialized countries to curb emissions, while developing countries – including major emerging economies such as China, India and Brazil – would have voluntarily reduced emissions.

The United States Senate unanimously opposed it, as did President George W. Bush, setting in motion nearly two decades of fighting over which countries bear the most responsibility for tackling climate change. In 2014, the United States and China broke the impasse by agreeing to take steps to tackle global warming. This led to 200 countries signing the groundbreaking Paris climate treaty a year later. For the first time, rich and poor countries agreed to take action, albeit at different paces, to tackle climate change.

The United States withdrew from the Paris Agreement under President Donald J. Trump, but rejoined under President Biden.

Although leaders in Paris made big promises, countries have not taken enough action to avert the worst effects of climate change. Scientists, activists and many world leaders agree that more ambition is needed – perhaps even a pledge this year to phase out fossil fuels – even as countries begin to make good on their plans to cut emissions.