The following is a transcript of a video message from UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28), which runs from 30 November until 12 December in Dubai.

This year’s climate conference comes as the crisis enters a new phase – and shows its full force, harming billions of people, and costing trillions.

Now everyone is on the frontlines.  No country is immune.

Yet most governments are still taking baby steps, when bold strides are urgently needed.

So – on the eve of the COP28, the problem is clear: business-as-usual is breaking our planet.  At the COP28 climate conference, leaders must get to work fixing it.

The Global Stocktake completed by UN Climate Change this year showed us where progress has stalled.  But it also highlighted the tools to get climate action moving much faster.

Governments must pick up these tools and put them to work.

At COP28, governments must deliver on two time frames: a surge in climate action now, and a springboard for next two crucial years, and beyond.

In Dubai, governments must agree what bolder actions need to be taken and how to deliver them. 

It’s great that over 160 world leaders are coming, but COP28 cannot be just a photo-op.  Leaders must deliver in Dubai – the message is clear.

And as leaders leave Dubai after the opening Summit, their message to their negotiators must be equally clear: don’t come home without a deal that will make a real difference.

They must agree to triple renewable energy this decade, and double energy efficiency.

Developing nations – who did least to cause the crisis - have been starved of climate justice and resilience for too long.

Last year’s COP in Egypt delivered an historic Loss & Damage Fund.  This year’s cop in the UAE must put meat on the bone of this fund.

That means putting real money on the table.  Table scraps won’t cut it.

More broadly – COP28 in Dubai must show that finance is the great climate enabler.

It needs to flow to developing in countries in torrents, not trickles, to boost climate resilience right now.

The reality is that without much more finance flowing to developing countries, a renewables revolution will remain a mirage in the desert. COP28 must turn it into a reality.

And COP28 must show a clear agreement to leave fossil fuel dependency behind. 

Only renewable energy offers safe, affordable, secure energy, as well as far more jobs, stronger economic growth, less pollution and better health for people in every country.

Finally – Dubai is an opportunity – and a moment – to build bridges in a fractured world.

The climate crisis is hitting every country and every economy; no country alone can fix it.

But climate action is a chance to unite around a common cause: survival, justice, prosperity.

In short - Divisions will destroy us. But solutions can save us.

At COP28, it’s time for us all to get to work.