‘India most important partner, should be a part of COP28 solutions’
Ahead of the UN Climate talks in Bonn (June 5-15) which will set the agenda for UN Climate meeting (COP28) in Dubai in November, COP28 director-general Ambassador Majid Al Suwaidi told HT in an interview that mitigation of emissions, an outcome on adaptation, the operationalisation of the Loss and Damage fund, and delivery of climate finance will be get top priority in a COP being held in the Global South for the Global South. Edited excerpts:
What are your expectations from COP28?Our leadership has been very clear that we do not want a COP that is incremental, but a very ambitious COP. This is a COP that is being held by the UAE — in the Global South for the Global South.
We need to think about the hard questions. At COP21 in Paris we put in place what’s called the global stocktake — that we will come back and review where we were from Paris. Unfortunately, we know today that we are not on track to achieve the goals and ambitions of Paris. We can’t say Paris was successful if we cannot achieve the goals Paris laid out. In our COP, we are focused on how we can get back on track. To achieve the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal, we need to achieve the financing goals… we know that climate change is an issue we have looked at carefully based on a scientific approach. We have been expanding renewable energy, diversifying our economy away from oil and gas, and we are investing in other industries and sectors to diversify and reduce our dependence on oil and gas. We approached hosting COP with the lens of a country that is growing and developing but wants to be part of the solution to climate change.
What are your solutions and deliverables at COP28?For us, solution comes down to mitigation because that’s the source of the problem. We need a serious conversation on how we address the 43% emissions reduction needed globally to meet the Paris Agreement goal. That means we need an open discussion with industry, the private sector, governments, and civil society. We need solutions that allow us to deliver results today. We need to bring back the confidence in the COP process.
Mitigation will be key but we also need an outcome when it comes to adaptation. It can have co-benefits for the agricultural sector, food systems… we need to take important steps to help vulnerable communities to adapt. The third pillar to our strategy is around Loss and Damage. From Sharm El Sheikh (COP27), we were mandated to deliver the operationalisation of the Loss and Damage fund — we think it’s a critical piece of the puzzle because if we need to protect through this process, the most vulnerable and poorest who face challenges they did not contribute to. It is a critical deliverable.
Lastly, COP28 can deliver on climate finance. We have been talking about climate action for a long time now but the finance that will allow that action to happen in the developing world has not come through. We need to get to trillions of dollars of investment not just $100 billion which has not been delivered. We need reforms of multinational banks; international financial institutions and we need to have private sector coming behind those money flows.
What are your views on phasing out or phasing down fossil fuels?We need to address the emissions that are happening today. We at COP28 don’t preclude any kind of discussions, technologies or solutions. What we are saying is let’s have the solutions on table that real things are going to happen today to get us back on track so, that’s why we are saying let’s focus on addressing emissions. Let’s not have ideological discussions. Let’s talk of practical things that can happen today to achieve our goals of mitigation. We are open to any kind of discussions, let’s have that conversation to address emissions gaps. We are a COP that is about delivering solutions.
How do you plan to raise and address the issues of the Global South?We need to address how the Global South can continue developing, and developing well because we need to lift people out of poverty. That is rightfully the focus of many countries but we also need to do it in a climate friendly way and so we need to discuss how we can mobilise capital and investments in the Global South, how do we help the most vulnerable and how development can happen in a low carbon way? It needs to support of developed world so that capacities are transferred and finance mobilised.
UAE and India are allies when it comes to climate action. Where do you see India at COP28?India is one of our most important partners. We have a long history of working together that goes back since founding of our country. We are very proud of our friendship with India, every opportunity we get to work with India, we embrace. India is one of the countries we have been to visit the most so we believe India can come to our COP and deliver big. There is a need for increase in mitigation reduction in India, we need to see investments happening, action happening, we need to see deployment of renewables happening. We need to have India to come and be a part of the solution with us. India is doing so much today and the potential is great.
Do you think we still have a chance of keeping global warming under 1.5°C over pre-industrial levels?We have to be as ambitious as possible. We need as many solutions as possible. Even a small temperature rise is a problem so we have to keep temperature rise as low as possible and maintain ambition of Paris Agreement. We need to make sure we keep in track with the 1.5°C goal.
Do you think the $100 billion promised in 2009 by developed countries will finally be delivered this year?It’s disappointing that this has not been delivered already. We have been talking with our partners. They are telling us that they are confident that they will deliver on this goal. This is small part of a very big puzzle. We actually need to see delivery of trillions of dollars.
You have spoken about a new, ambitious renewable energy goal but there are also talks that carbon capture and sequestration will occupy a big part of the conversation at COP. How do they reconcile?We have been calling for a tripling of renewable energy as a goal. We would love to have a much more ambitious goal as well, so we believe that’s really important. We need to start to build that infrastructure of the future that allows us to make this energy transition happen fast. We need to have results that are happening today. There have been many, many COPs that talk of targets that are way off in the future. But we are very focused on the purpose of COPs to deliver results today. What that means that we need to apply all technologies that we have at hand. Carbon capture and storage is a technology that is available for us today. We do it in the UAE to address emissions. We believe its just one tool in many tools that can be used to address emissions and that is why we are not being exclusive about what the solutions are. We are trying to be as inclusive as possible. We welcome anybody with solutions. We talk a lot about nature-based solutions. Mangroves are a very important topic for us because mangroves sequester 4 times as much carbon as the rain forests. That’s quite a significant mitigation tool but it also has biodiversity benefits, coastal adaptation benefits and many others. For us that is a solution UAE can contribute, for others there can be different solutions. Let’s not preclude anybody’s solutions. Let’s bring them all to the table and let’s see how we can speed them up.
Do you think net zero goals are feasible and practical?We know the steps that we can take for net zero emissions. We need political will and some technological advancements as well and we need the finance. We need to get behind it and every country to step up caution. We would like COP28 to be a moment of unity.