Sharm El News

Sharm El-Sheikh, India has been silent on the question on phasing out or down of fossil fuels at COP28. Despite its aggressive renewable energy targets and its role in the adoption of the G20 commitment to triple renewable energy capacity, India has so far maintained a studied silence on the issue of fossil fuels at the ongoing UN Climate Conference in Dubai. At COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh last year, India had proposed inclusion of clear language on phasing down all fossil fuels, not just coal, as agreed at the Glasgow meet. Though the proposal failed to make the final cut, it gained the support of at least 80 countries and the European Union. This tentative alliance between India, the EU, and small island states was viewed by some observers as a new approach that was ambitious while being rooted in equity. The proposal had not found support from India's traditional negotiating partners such as China and Saudi Arabia. Now, at Friday's plenary marking the start of the second week of negotiations in Dubai, India did not address the issue in its intervention. Instead, it extended support for the position taken by the 43-member Like-minded Developing Countries (LMDC) group that includes China, Saudi Arabia, Bolivia, and Egypt, among others.

DUBAI: In an unprecedented move, the 28th round of the UN Climate Change Conference approved the structure and details of the loss and damage fund to help poor countries cope with climate disasters at its opening session. Traditionally, at the ceremonial opening of the COP, the host country takes over the presidency, the agenda for the talks is approved, and countries and negotiating groups set out their expectations. COP28 departed from the traditional fare with a quick round of pledges for the new fund. More than $400 million was pledged with hosts the UAE and Germany each pledging $100 million.

UN climate talks here opened with a bang with countries clinching an early deal on how to compensate developing and poor nations that bear the brunt of the climate crisis despite contributing little to it, a decision welcomed by climate activists with caution. The agreement on the operationalisation of the Loss And Damage Fund on the first day of the annual climate negotiations, called COP28, sets the stage for ambitious decisions over the next 12 days.

The world’s top bankers and investors mostly stayed away from last year’s United Nations climate conference in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh. But holding December’s COP28 meeting in Dubai, one of the world’s major financial centers, pretty much guarantees they’ll make a much bigger showing.

NEW DELHI : At the COP27 Summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, in November, UN Secretary-General António Guterres painted a sobering picture of the global climate trajectory. “We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator," he said in a stark warning about the perilous journey ahead. While nations are embracing the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) defined at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Brazil in 2012, corporations are also trying out sustainability initiatives in the ESG (environment, social and governance) space.

The European Union is not hiding its disappointment with the climate deal struck at COP27, criticising its lack of ambition and warning of an increasingly distant possibility to keep global warming under the 1.5 °C target.

The Climate Change Coalition (CCC), a network of organizations dedicated to leveraging blockchain technology for effective climate action, including Cointelegraph as a member, delivered on Nov. 11 its stock take report at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP27, in Sharm El-Sheikh,Egypt. 

It is "important" that world leaders sit down and discuss the contentious issue of climate reparations during COP27, said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.