No COP28 consensus yet on climate change goals
DUBAI: Lack of progress on designing a framework for a global goal on adaptation, or measures taken by countries to live with and become more resilient to adverse impacts of climate change, could derail a successful conclusion to the COP28 climate talks.
While emission reduction or mitigation has clear goals-the temperature target of well below 2C and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5C, there are no comparable targets for adapting to impacts of climate change. The 2015 Paris Agreement addresses this gap through the decision to put in place a global goal that mirrors that for mitigation.
Over 8 workshops and two years countries have been working to develop this framework, which countries are expected to agree to in Dubai.
Countries, however, are nowhere near agreement.
The lack of an agreement is mainly due to the divergence on the kind of targets that countries need, and on ensuring rich industrialised countries provide adequate flow funds to help developing countries build systems to withstand the impacts of climate change. Some negotiators hold Saudi Arabia, which leads the Arab Group at COP28, responsible for the lack of consensus.
This pushback, according to an observer, is because concerns on equity and justice raised by developing country groups do not find reflection.
