World stands on frontline of disaster at Cop28,
says UN climate chief
Exclusive: Simon Stiell says leaders must ‘stop
dawdling’ and act before crucial summit in Dubai
Fiona
Harvey Environment editor
Fri 24 Nov
2023 19.16 CET
World
leaders must “stop dawdling and start doing” on carbon emission cuts, as
rapidly rising temperatures this year have put everyone on the frontline of
disaster, the UN’s top climate official has warned.
No country
could think itself immune from catastrophe, said Simon Stiell, who will oversee
the crucial Cop28 climate summit that begins next week. Scores of world leaders
will arrive in Dubai for tense talks on how to tackle the crisis.
“We’re used
to talking about protecting people on the far-flung frontlines. We’re now at
the point where we’re all on the frontline,” said Stiell, speaking exclusively
to the Guardian before the summit. “Yet most governments are still strolling
when they need to be sprinting.”
Global
temperatures have broken new records in recent months, making this year the
hottest on record, and perilously close to the threshold of 1.5C above
pre-industrial levels that countries have agreed to hold to. Temperatures are
now heading for a “hellish” 3C increase, unless urgent and drastic action is
taken, but greenhouse gas emissions have continued to rise.
Stiell said
it was still possible to cut greenhouse gas emissions enough to stay within the
crucial limit, but that further delay would be dangerous.
“Every year
of the baby steps we’ve been taking up to this point means that we need to be
taking … bigger leaps with each following year if we are to stay in this race,”
he said. “The science is absolutely clear.”
The
fortnight-long Cop28 talks will start this Thursday in Dubai, hosted by the
United Arab Emirates, a major oil and gas-producing country. Scores of world
leaders, senior ministers and officials from 198 countries will be in
attendance, along with an estimated 70,000 delegates, making it the biggest
annual conference of the parties (Cop) yet held under the 1992 UN framework
convention on climate change.
The UK
prime minister, Rishi Sunak, is expected to attend, and King Charles will give
the opening speech, along with the UN secretary general, António Guterres, and
the UAE president, Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan. The pope will also be there,
the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and an invitation has
been extended to Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria.
The
presidents of the world’s two biggest greenhouse gas emitters, Joe Biden of the
US and Xi Jinping of China, are not expected to attend, but their envoys John
Kerry and Xie Zhenhua have signalled their close cooperation before the talks.
Sultan Al
Jaber, the chief of the UAE national oil company, Adnoc, will preside over the
talks. Al Jaber has come under fierce criticism from green campaigners for his
dual role, but Stiell said this was “a distraction”.
“This is
not the first Cop to be hosted by a fossil fuel producing nation and it
certainly won’t be the last. Every country, even those that are major oil
producers, have their role to play,” he said. “What’s important are the
messages and the signals that the incoming president is giving, and they speak
to the need for urgent action and a focus on the how – how do we speed up the
transition to a new decarbonised world.”
Fossil fuel
executives are likely to be out in force at the summit, as they have been an
increasing presence at Cops in recent years.
Stiell
said: “It’s important that we recognise that the fossil fuel industry has to be
part of the solution. We know where the problems lie. But in order to progress
the conversation from what needs to be done to how it needs to be done, the
fossil fuel industry has to be part of the conversation.”
But he
insisted these companies had to show they were serious about shifting the world
to a zero-carbon economy. “Their engagement in the process has to be
legitimate, has to be speaking to the necessary actions that are taking the
transition away from our current dependence on fossil fuels to a new
decarbonised business model,” he said.
One of the
key issues at Cop28 will be the provision of finance for the rescue and
rehabilitation of the poorest and most vulnerable communities when they are
stricken with climate disaster. The absence of this loss and damage funding has
been a longstanding grievance for developing countries, but earlier this month
countries agreed a blueprint for the fund.
Rich
countries have yet to pledge contributions to the fund, however. Stiell called
on world leaders to come with pledges. “A fund that is established without the
resources capitalised won’t get us to where we need to be. That opportunity,
for donors to send strong signals as to how the fund will be capitalised, and
the scale of that capitalisation, is on offer at this Cop,” he said.
Governments
will be presented with a global assessment of how little progress has been made
on emissions cuts since the 2015 Paris agreement, and how far off track the
world is to meet the Paris goal of limiting global heating to 1.5C, beyond
which scientists warn the impacts of the climate crisis will rapidly become
catastrophic and irreversible.
Stiell said
governments must list and deploy the “solutions, solutions, solutions” that
they know will be effective, such as renewable energy, electrifying transport
and decarbonising the global economy. “People everywhere expect governments to
put these tools at work at Cop28. Public attention will be on us, and the
expectations that this Cop will speak to those solutions and the urgency of
action.”
He said:
“We keep talking about hope, but hope can only be established if there are
signs of delivery, of action. I believe that is the signal that ordinary people
struggling to deal with the consequences of climate change are expecting of
world leaders here at Cop28.”
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