Excerpt and Photo from euronews.com
The COP28 climate summit in Dubai enters its second week tomorrow (8 December). As delegates take a well-earned rest day, how much progress has been made so far?
As always, it depends who you ask. Sultan Al Jaber, the UAE’s COP president who has been tasked with overseeing the negotiations, is feeling outwardly positive.
“I think, based on the momentum, the traction, and all that has been happening over the past week, we can agree that there is something special happening here at COP28 and in Dubai,” he told a plenary of country negotiators yesterday.
Not everyone is in full agreement with that half-way point assessment, however.
“The first week of climate negotiations in Dubai saw some surprising successes and some frustrating failures,” says Dr Stephen Cornelius, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)’s Deputy Global Climate and Energy Lead.
“Overall, the progress was typically slow and didn’t reflect the urgency called for by science and people suffering from the climate crisis. There is a lot to do in the remaining five days of negotiating time to achieve the course correction needed to adequately respond to the climate emergency.”