Mukesh Ambani, the Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries, has been selected as a member of the Advisory Committee to the President of COP28, the 28th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Apart from Sunita Narain, Director General of the Centre for Science and Environment, Mukesh Ambani is the sole Indian representative on the Advisory Committee to the President of COP28. Ambani, alongside influential global leaders such as Larry Fink, Chairman and CEO of BlackRock, Olafur Grimsson, Chairman of Arctic Circle (Former President of Iceland), Laurent Fabius, President of COP21/Paris Agreement and Former Prime Minister of France, Francesco La Camera, Director General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), and Bob Dudley, Chair of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) and former CEO of BP, forms part of the esteemed COP28 Advisory Council.
The COP28 UAE Advisory Committee assembles climate experts and thought leaders from countries spanning six continents. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is set to host the 28th session of the Conference of Parties (COP28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) from November 30 to December 12, 2023. The event will take place at Dubai Expo City.
COP, known as the apex decision-making body of the UNFCCC, was established in response to the escalating threat of climate change. It was initially signed during the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, also referred to as the Rio Summit or Earth Summit, held in 1992. The UNFCCC Secretariat is based in Bonn, Germany.
Comprising representatives from policy, industry, energy, finance, civil society, youth, and humanitarian sectors, the 31-member Committee, with 65 percent hailing from the Global South, will offer guidance and advice to the COP Presidency leading up to COP28 and beyond.
In January 2023, the UNFCCC Secretariat announced the appointment of H.E. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and UAE Special Envoy for Climate Change, as the COP28 President-Designate.
The COP Presidency and venue rotate among the five recognized UN regions, including the Caribbean, Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Central, Eastern, and Western Europe. The inaugural COP meeting took place in Berlin, Germany, in March 1995, and subsequent COP sessions have been held annually, unless decided otherwise by the Parties.