UAE: Crucial Pre-COP28 Talks To Begin as Dr Al Jaber Calls for All Voices To Be Heard
About 60 ministers from around the world are expected in the UAE over the next two days for crucial pre-Cop28 talks.
The negotiations will take place on Monday and Tuesday in Abu Dhabi and aim to drive momentum for the crucial UN summit that is now just four weeks away.
Pre-Cop is seen as a crucial stage to outline differences in climate issues such as emissions, keeping the 1.5ºC threshold within reach, scaling up finance and other vital areas such as loss and damage.
The “global stocktake”, an assessment of where countries stand in meeting the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement, is also expected to be front and centre during the two-day event.
The preparatory talks are the last formal ministerial engagement before Cop28, the presidency said and aims to ensure talks can hit the ground running on November 30.
Dr Sultan Al Jaber, Cop28 President-designate, called for the voices of developing nations to be heard in the climate debate in a meeting held on the eve of the pre-Cop gathering.
“To guarantee an inclusive and equitable transition to low-carbon and resilient growth, the voices of emerging and developing countries must not go unheard,” said Dr Al Jaber at the third Climate and Development Ministerial, which was co-hosted by the United Kingdom, Vanuatu and Malawi.
Dr Al Jaber said the Cop28 Presidency was working on improving conditions for the world’s most vulnerable nations by reallocating and channelling Special Drawing Rights, a financial instrument allocated by the International Monetary Fund, to address debt sustainability and support resilience investment.
“I will be looking to unlock progress and press ministers on all challenging issues that are key to a high-ambition outcome. I call on ministers to come prepared to engage in the spirit of flexibility and unity that the world is expecting of us less than a month out from Cop28.”
