After a year of record temperatures, deadly floods and devastating wildfires, the city of Dubai is hosting world leaders in the annual UN climate summit .
Discussions at COP28 will span everything from tackling agricultural emissions and food security to how countries can adapt to weather extremes .
During COP27 in Egypt , delegates reached a major breakthrough, agreeing to establish a fund to help developing countries recover after weather disasters.
Delegates in Dubai will have to agree on the details as to which states will be able to access the fund, who will pay how much into it and how the fund will be administered.
In 2015, nearly 200 governments signed the historic Paris Agreement, a legally binding treaty with the goal of keeping global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celcius
(3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) compared to pre-industrial levels. So far average temperatures have increased 1.2 C, with 2023 on track to be the hottest ever recorded.
Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at the Bonn-headquartered Climate Action Network (CAN), said developing countries most vulnerable to the consequences of planetary heating have done little to contribute to the fossil fuel emissions causing climate change.
This year, the COP will see the first-ever “global stocktake” or review of each country’s progress in slashing emissions to meet the heating pledge.
“It’s about looking at what has been achieved, where the gaps are and what more needs to be done,” said Singh. “It’s a process to respond to scientific findings.”
At COP28, states and businesses will have to up their game to rapidly decarbonize, the report said. Increasing ambition on emissions cuts will be high on the agenda.