PM heads to Dubai for COP28 Climate Action meeting

New Delhi, Nov 30: The COP28 summit addressing climate change has commenced in Dubai, marked by the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, declaring 2023 as the hottest year on record. Guterres emphasized that the current situation reflects "climate collapse in real time" and urged global leaders to take immediate action.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to embark on a journey to Dubai later this evening to partake in the World Climate Action Summit, the high-level segment of the 28th Conference of Parties (COP28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The Prime Minister is scheduled to engage in Summit events on December 1st before returning to India the same evening. This visit follows the Prime Minister's last trip to the UAE in July of this year. The Prime Minister will also have several bilateral meetings with other world leaders.
Foreign Secretary, Vinay Kwatra in a special news briefing in New Delhi said that the Prime Minister's role at COP28 involves delivering a keynote address at the Opening Session of the World Climate Action

Summit. Additionally, he will actively participate in three high-level side events, two of which are co-hosted by India.

The first, in collaboration with the UAE, is the launch of the Green Credits Initiative. This initiative, introduced by the Ministry of Environment in India, focuses on issuing Green Credits for plantations on waste and degraded lands, as well as river catchment areas to restore their vitality.

The second side event, co-hosted with Sweden, marks the launch of Lead IT 2.0—an innovative Leadership Group for Industry Transition. Originating from a joint initiative between India and Sweden in 2019, this platform aims to foster collaboration between the public and private sectors to accelerate the transition of heavy industries to net-zero emissions. Another high-level event on the agenda is "Transforming Climate Finance," hosted by the Presidency of COP28 in the UAE.

Having attended COP21 in Paris and COP26 in Glasgow, where the Prime Minister announced the 'Panchamrit' plan, India remains at the forefront of the global climate action narrative.
With COP being the paramount decision-making body of the UNFCCC, convening annually to assess progress and discuss climate change actions, the Prime Minister's participation underlines India's commitment to global climate initiatives.

The Foreign Secretary added that India's climate approach, deeply rooted in its civilizational ethos, is evident in its contributions and ambitious national policies for economic development, energy, health, and nutrition. The nation has pioneered global initiatives, such as the International Solar Alliance and the Coalition for Disaster-Resilient Infrastructure.

The leaders of the world's largest emitters, the US and China, are absent from the summit. Leaders from various countries, including the UK, the European Commission, and Israel, are attending the summit. However, leaders like Joe Biden and Xi Jinping are expected to send high-level representatives, and Pope Francis has cancelled his attendance due to health concerns.

The World Meteorological Organization reported a virtual certainty that 2023 has broken the global temperature record, raising concerns that 2024 could be even warmer due to the El Niño weather system. Guterres highlighted record-high sea levels, sea surface temperatures, and a record-low sea-ice level in Antarctica during his speech.

Hosted by the United Arab Emirates, a major oil-producing nation, the summit is overseen by oil executive Sultan al-Jaber. In his opening address, Jaber stressed the need for this summit to fulfil promises, including a $100 billion fund to aid developing countries in coping with climate change.

Despite rising greenhouse gas emissions, scientists emphasize the necessity to nearly halve them within the next seven years to avert catastrophic changes. Current policies, if unchanged, predict more extreme heatwaves, rainfall, and rising sea levels.

This year's COP28 introduces the "global stocktake," where countries assess their progress toward curbing global warming, setting the stage for future climate actions. Each country sets its targets under the 2015 Paris Agreement, with this stocktake influencing their emissions-cutting goals for the next few years.