FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Arab ambition in trade and tourism is now filling the arena of international relations,
D ubai has come a long way over the last 200 years: Once a fishing village ringed by an oval mud wall with barely a thousand souls, according to a British naval survey of 1822, today it is a regional hub, a metropolis of 3.5 million people and home to the tallest building in the world – the half-mile high Burj Khalifa. Soaring 200 floors into the sky and clad in 330,000 m 3 of concrete, 40,000 tonnes of steel and 100,000m 2 of shimmering glass, it is the embodiment of modern Arab ambition. That ambition in trade and tourism is now filling the arena of international relations, as the OPEC Fund member country United Arab Emirates (UAE) hosts the latest UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) at a truly pivotal moment: The first Global Stocktake – a process for countries and stakeholders to see where they’re collectively making progress towards meeting the goals of the Paris Climate Change Agreement and where they’re not – is scheduled to conclude at this year’s conference. UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell calls it a “moment for course correction,” an opportunity to ramp up ambition to avoid the worst
led several high-level events featuring Director-General Abdulhamid Alkhalifa, senior management, ministers from partner countries from all over the world and various heads of global organizations, the institution now plans to step up and achieve even more — and to do so with the help of our friends. Highlights this year include high-level discussions on flagship initiatives and announcements with, among others, the COP28 Presidency, the UNFCCC and the UN Climate Champions Team, a group of designated “climate ambassadors” who serve as liaisons between government and other stakeholders such as civil society organizations. A range of side events and other initiatives are also planned with international partners including the Arab Coordination Group (ACG), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the International Fund for Agricultural
as the UAE hosts COP28 at a truly pivotal moment.
consequences of climate change. The stocktake itself isn’t the game changer – it’s the global response to it that will make all the di ff erence, says the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the UN entity tasked with supporting the global response to the threat of climate change. The question now is, how can “we” maintain that momentum? How do we turn commitments into projects that will make a real di ff erence to vulnerable people on the frontline of climate change? How can we make the concept of a Just Transition a reality for all? Following last year’s milestone participation at COP27 in Sharm El- Sheikh, Egypt, where the OPEC Fund
Development (IFAD), the International Renewable
Energy Agency (IRENA), the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) and the World Food Programme (WFP).
27
Powered by FlippingBook