Held from November 30 to December 13, 2023, the COP28 Climate Change Conference in Dubai brought together about 85,000 participants from around the globe to address the world’s efforts to combat climate change.
From Peter Oviroh’s visits to different pavilions of countries and different engagements from both blue and green zones, a lot of momentum was generated at COP28 UAE toward creating climate change solutions. An observation that Oviroh noticed was the diversity of participants. Apart from the traditional UN agencies and NGOs in attendance, there were several other interest groups present, such as religious groups, oil and gas industry representatives, and lots of young people were getting involved.
The majority of the discussion at the conference is centered on Africa, specifically the low- and middle-income countries, due to the disproportionate effect of climate change.
One of the things that resonates with Oviroh, as said by co-chair Jeffrey Sachs in a meeting, was, “What will be the role of fossil fuels in the future?”
The co-chairs, Jeffrey Sachs, and Gerd Müller, the Director General of UNIDO, discussed issues with the participants, such as geopolitics, regional cooperation, energy systems, and financing the technologies and processes that will accelerate the clean energy transition.
The conference participants also had the opportunity, as council members, to visit the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park. It is the largest single-site solar park in the world based on the Independent Power Producer (IPP) model. It has a planned production capacity of 5,000 MW by 2030. That is one of the many in-progress developments of renewable funding being discussed to alleviate the damage being done by global warming.
For more key outcomes of the conference, check out the coverage available on UNFCCC.int.
