An oil executive in charge of the global climate talks is at the beginning

The World is at a Crossroads: Progress toward a Transparent and Transparent Prediction of Climate Change, as Revealed by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change

The meeting comes toward the end of what will almost certainly be the hottest year in recorded history. The warming of the planet by about 1.2 degrees is due to the burning of fossil fuels. The damage caused by storms and fires made worse by climate change can be seen around the world.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, al-Jaber acknowledged that there may not be consensus among world leaders over whether, and how, to phase out oil, gas and coal, but he pledged to lead transparent talks. “We feel, as you feel, the urgency of this work,” he said. We see, as you can see, that the world is in a crossroads.

This year’s negotiations come at the close of the hottest year ever recorded on Earth. Extreme weather events, including floods, droughts, wildfires and heat waves, are increasingly deadly and disruptive.

“There were many scary records broken in the year 2023” said the head of the United Nation’s Framework Convention on Climate Change at the opening ceremony. “We are paying with people’s lives and livelihoods.”

Scientists warn that a rapid fall of greenhouse gas pollution is needed in order to avoid catastrophes such as mass extinctions and runaway sea level rise by the end of this century.

The COP21 summit in Armageddon: climate change negotiations after the Xi Jinping-Bin vs. Biden agreement

Chinese president Xi Jinping will also skip this year’s talks, although he is sending a delegation of high-level officials in his place. Biden and XI agreed to work on tackling climate change again, after suspending official collaboration last year due to tensions between the two nations.

The U.S. is not very active in international climate negotiations. Historically, the U.S. is responsible for emitting more planet-warming greenhouse gasses than any other nation. The US is a major polluter, emitting more each year than any other country.

Every country needs to approve any final agreement. The need for unanimous consent means that each word in the final document will be scrutinized. In previous years, representatives from oil producing nations have vetoed language calling for a rapid phaseout of fossil fuels.

The event, which began on Saturday and will continue for 10 days, will bring together politicians from around the world in an effort to find common ground against the effects of climate change.

The president of Uganda, the king of Barbados, the prime minister of Barbados, and the president of Ukraine are all expected to speak on Friday. The Palestinian Authority president will be speaking seven weeks into the war in Gaza.

U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry: “The world is falling short of the target to 1.5 degrees Celsius”, he told COP28

He called on the delegates to attempt to keep global warming at no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, a target many scientists don’t believe is realistic.

In his opening remarks on Thursday, Mr. Al Jaber defended the presence of fossil fuel at COP28. “Let history reflect the fact that this is the presidency that made a bold choice to proactively engage with oil and gas companies,” he said.

Kerry said that the United States had stepped up under Biden’s leadership at the New Economy Forum.

The Inflation Reduction Act was passed last year. The largest climate legislation ever passed in the U.S., it directs hundreds of billions of dollars to boost clean energy and speed the transition away from fossil fuels like oil and natural gas.

Nisha Krishnan, climate director for the World Resources Institute’s Africa office says that there is a trust deficit with the U.S.

It’s also sometimes a roadblock at negotiations. Former President Trump even removed the U.S. from the key Paris climate agreement, though President Biden later rejoined.

Speaking in September at a climate ambition summit, United Nations Secretary General António Guterres pointed out a dynamic at the heart of climate negotiations. Rich countries caused the most damage when they burned fossil fuels such as oil and gas to power their economic growth, while poorer countries often suffer the worst consequences.

Money is the main culprit in much of the anger. Rich countries have promised to pay hundreds of billions of dollars to help poorer countries transition to cleaner energy and adapt to climate change. But Congress has resisted allocating enough money for those payments, in part because many lawmakers, including most Republicans, still oppose the Paris agreement.

At a gathering this fall in Singapore, U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry took a moment to assure his audience that the U.S. is taking climate change seriously.

So far, U.S. efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions are not enough to meet the nation’s own commitments under the Paris Agreement. The world is falling short of the target to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

“It’s time for the US to come to grips with its role in global warming.” said the International Program Director at Institute for Climate and sustainable Cities in the Philippines.

This year’s climate talks have made some progress. On the first day of the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, negotiators finalized a new fund to help developing countries pay for damage caused by extreme weather events.

“The U.S. China Sunnylands statement will help improve or stabilize the politics at COP28. Li thinks that it is like an insurance policy to the UN climate summit. At least the negotiations won’t be a failure.

That relationship went into hibernation during the Trump administration and has been rocky under Biden, Li says. But this summer, it was rekindled, at least on climate issues. Climate envoys from both countries met in California this month, where they committed to doubling deployment of renewable energy globally by the year 2030.

“The Paris Agreement, for example, it really did take Obama to do all the backchannel diplomacy with China to be able to bring China to that table,” says Naveeda Khan, chair of the Department of Anthropology at Johns Hopkins University. The book was about climate negotiations between the United States and developing countries.

As countries are frustrated with the U.S. for not meeting its commitments, there’s an understanding that it’s still essential to major breakthrough.

The host nation, the United Arab Emirates, committed $100 million to the fund, as did Germany. Congress committed $17.5 million and the United States pledged to work with them.