According to a local newspaper, the UAE, which is set to host COP28 later this year, has initiated a series of significant meetings in Goa, west India, alongside the International Energy Agency. These meetings took place on the sidelines of the Clean Energy Ministerial and the G20 Energy Transitions Ministerial.
The main objective of these meetings is to garner agreement on the implementation of an action plan during COP28, with the aim of limiting the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The editoria on Monday, stated that Dr. Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber, the UAE COP28 President-designate and Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, and Dr. Fatih Birol, the Executive Director of the IEA, jointly chaired the first of these meetings.
Dr. Jaber said, “These high-level dialogues are bringing public and private-sector energy decision-makers together under the framework of a COP for the first time.”
He described the COP28 as a “milestone opportunity” and the need to evolve a consensus to achieve the goals set out in the Paris Agreement – the climate summit held in the French capital in 2015 where a framework was evolved to keep rise in temperature at 1.5 degrees Celsius.”
“The COP28 President-designate felt that success can be achieved only when all the stakeholders are brought together, and this includes the energy industry. Dr Jaber said the meetings “will help redesign the relationship between policy-makers, the biggest energy producers, and industrial consumers. This is one of my Presidency’s key priorities and will be a crucial step in building consensus on how best to deliver the energy system of the future.”
“The aim to achieve the consensus is indeed the only forward, but there are many hurdles on the way,” the editorial stated, adding, “compromises are needed from all sides.”
“The Dubai-based daily concluded by saying, “The COP28 is a larger gathering than the G20, and the agenda of COP28 is exclusively focused on climate issues. It would perhaps be necessary to make it a point that the participating countries will keep political issues out of the conference.”
