cop 28, climate change Joseph Hammond moderating at Cop28, Image: Cop28
In the dazzling cityscape of Dubai, amidst the shimmering skyscrapers and desert sands, history was quietly but profoundly made.
The United Nations conference COP28 in Dubai produced a first of its kind agreement to globally reduce the usage of fossil fuels.
In the process, COP28 President Sultan Al Jaber - largely written off by much of the western press prior to the Summit - managed to prove his critics wrong. Using business skills and deft climate diplomacy, he managed to negotiate a series of milestones that achieved more than any previous COP.
The inclusion of fossil fuel companies and a climate summit was bold, if not outright controversial - figures like Al Gore criticised the move. Yet, this led to a first of its kind oil and gas Decarbonization Charter - which over 50 the world’s major fossil fuel companies signed up to.
But given they are responsible for 40% of the world's production, it’s a wonder it took so long to on-board them in efforts to reform the sector needs in the face of the threat of climate change. Their pledge is nothing short of ambitious: to eradicate methane leakage and gas flaring completely by the year 2030 and set their sights on achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.
The nearly 100,000 attendees at this year’s summit marked an event order of magnitudes’ bigger than previous editions. World leaders in tailored suits walked past African climate activists, Brazilian indigenous leaders decked in traditional feather headdresses and delegations from practically every country on earth.
Joseph Hammond, an award-winning journalist was our man in the thick of it. He was a moderator at the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) and spoke on both official and sideline events in the Blue Zone.
Hammond, a former resident of Sandton, offered GQ South Africa a behind the scenes glimpse. Hammond is more than just a well-regarded journalist on international and African affairs.
Hammond has chaired panels in the African Union, with NGOs, and in British Parliament yet, nothing prepared him for the monumental task of moderating at COP28.
“There were dozens of events taking place simultaneously on many issues. So a lot of the developments for Africa that built on initiatives we saw at Africa Climate Week in Kenya flew under the radar.”
The African Development Bank Group raised significant capital at COP28 toward a climate resilient Africa in total over $175 million for the Alliance for Green Infrastructure in Africa (AGIA).
The alliance is a partnership between the African Union Commission, the African Development Bank, Africa50 and other partners. It was launched at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh.
“If you are inside the Blue Zone and even if you’re not an official Party delegation member, you can get a sense of how negotiations are going on. I even ended up in a room with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni while she was doing a bilateral discussion.”
The first day of COP28 saw the agreement on a Loss and Damage Fund which will support the most vulnerable states to mitigate the impact of climate change.
The fund received some $700 million in pledged funding for the first time. Though according to the African Development Bank Africa much more is needed.
“Africa will need something in the region of 3 trillion in climate financing over the course of the next decade so this is a small amount but, the significance is in the legal precedent of the fund having finally been set up and operationalised.”
Hammond pointed out a number of other key developments at COP28. Such as a $777 million dollar fund announced to combat the spread of tropical diseases. Climate change means that the malaria zones of the world will spread and dengue fever may reach as far north as the United Kingdom.
The UAE also announced a $30 billion fund to invest in clean energy projects, including across Africa and which they hope to grow to $250 billion.
BRIC countries offered a number of important new efforts. Such as Brazil’s proposal for Tropical Forest Fund which included a $250 billion funding vehicle for conserving the world's tropical rainforests.
Hammond has reported across Africa. He has embedded with protestors on Tahrir Square during the Arab Spring, the M23 rebellion in the Eastern Congo, and covered the VDP militias in Burkina Faso for Newsweek.
“It wasn’t a war zone but, there was a tension in the air that important discussions were taking place at the right time,” he said. “To borrow a phrase from Winston Churchill this wasn’t the beginning of the end but, just maybe the end of the beginning in our struggle against climate change.”
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