From 30 November to 12 December 2023, the 28th Conference of Parties (COP) on climate change was held in Dubai. Here’s how it went and why nature is our ally in the fight against the climate crisis.

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On the morning of 13 December, after two intense weeks of work, the new Global Stocktake (GST)<\/a> <\/strong>– the outcome of the 28th Conference of Parties (COP)<\/strong> – was unanimously approved in Dubai. Why is this document so important, and what role does nature play in action against the climate crisis?<\/p>\n

Once a year, the 198 countries that have ratified the United Nations Convention on Climate Change<\/a> <\/strong>(UNFCCC) come together to define the key points of the global climate agenda. Since the first edition, the objective of the COP has been to prevent the consequences of human activities on the climate by promoting a dialogue between governments, intergovernmental organisations and civil society. This makes it possible to monitor the effects of the measures taken by the Parties, i.e. the countries involved and the progress made. Usually, each COP ends with ratifying a pact, just like the one signed in Paris in 2015: the global management framework to limit the rise in temperatures and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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The first step towards a fossil fuel-free future<\/h2>\n<\/div>
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The buzzword has been ‘ecological transition’ for the past two weeks, although the context could have been more favourable. The United Arab Emirates bases its profits on fossil fuels, acknowledged as a major cause of the climate crisis.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These resistances are visible in the signed agreement: there is no talk of ‘phase out’ but of ‘transition towards phasing out’ of fossil fuels.<\/strong> This, on a global level, translates into a commitment to eliminate emissions by 2050. Therefore, financial support will be essential to transition to a fair and equitable economy, especially to developing countries.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the Director General of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, the commitment to renewables, efficiency, and methane fills only 30% of the gap to the 2030 climate targets. What other actions are essential to put in place?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>

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The preservation of biodiversity is crucial to address the climate crisis<\/b><\/h2>\n<\/div>
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If including the fight against climate change in political and media agendas is complex, then raising awareness about biodiversity loss and its devastating environmental consequences is even more challenging. This task falls to another COP, the UN Conference of the Parties on Biodiversity<\/strong>, which features the same countries that have ratified the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. In 2022, the COP approved the Kunmig-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework<\/a> , which looks to 2030 to restore 30%\u00a0 of degraded ecosystems, conserve and protect 30%\u00a0 of land and sea areas, and restore biodiversity almost entirely by 2050.<\/span><\/p>\n

Biodiversity plays a fundamental role in climate change mitigation and adaptation, thus, in our survival. Several organisations committed to building a nature-positive future came together under three crucial demands at the Nature Positive Pavilion<\/a>\u00a0 in Dubai:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n