With the most important details of the Paris Climate Change Agreement negotiated and agreed over the last few years, COP 28 is all about implementing the Agreement and ramping up ambition and action.

We are in a decisive decade for climate action.

The latest science from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change indicates that greenhouse gas emissions need to be cut 43% by 2030, compared to 2019 levels. This is critical to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of this century and avoid the worst impacts of climate change, including more frequent and severe droughts, heatwaves and rainfall.

COP 28 is an opportunity to identify  global solutions for limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees, inform countries’ preparations for revised and more ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (national climate plans) due by 2025, accelerate the green transition that is already happening and ultimately achieve the delivery of the Paris Agreement goals.

Discussions at COP 28 need to make progress in several workstreams: hammering out the details of the loss and damage finance facility to help vulnerable communities deal with immediate climate impacts; driving towards a global goal on finance that would help fund developing countries’ efforts in addressing climate change; accelerating both an energy and a just transition; closing the massive emissions gap, just to name a few.

In addition, the first-ever global stocktake will conclude at COP 28.

The global stocktake is a process for countries and stakeholders to see where they’re collectively making progress towards meeting the goals of the Paris Climate Change Agreement – and where they’re not. The global stocktake has showed us we are not on track to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The window for meaningful change is closing, and the time to act is now.

Governments will take a decision on the global stocktake at COP 28, which can be leveraged to accelerate ambition in their next round of climate action plans due by 2025.

The global stocktake showed us where progress is too slow. But it also laid out the vast array of tools and solutions put forward by countries.

COP 28 must be a “can-do COP” where countries show how these tools will be put to work in the crucial next two years, to urgently pick up the pace.

More about: The global stocktake
 

The conference comprises the annual meetings of the three decision-making bodies of the Convention, the Paris Agreement and the Kyoto Protocol. In these bodies, delegates of all member states discuss and decide on a wide variety of climate-related agenda items.

Meetings at the 2023 UN Climate Change conference in Dubai include the 28^th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 28) – the supreme decision-making body of the Convention – as well as the fifth session of the decision-making body of the Paris Agreement (CMA 5) and the 18^th session of the decision-making body of the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 18), discussing workstreams under the Paris Agreement and the Kyoto Protocol, respectively.

Furthermore, the two subsidiary bodies under the UNFCCC, the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) and the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA), will convene for SBI 59 and SBSTA 59. These two bodies do not pass decisions themselves, but provide technical information and advice to COP, CMA and CMP.

More about: Governing and Subsidiary Bodies of the UNFCCC

Other meetings happening at COP 28 include closed-door negotiations between the various delegations, mandated technical meetings, press conferences, a high-level segment for world leaders, side events and pavilion events

The blue zone

All of the official sessions, meetings, side events and press conferences are taking place in the “blue zone”, the formal conference and negotiation space managed by UN Climate Change. Only Party delegations, Heads of State, admitted observers and the accredited press can enter the blue zone.

The green zone

Beyond the official UN-organized part of the conference, COP 28 is also a platform to showcase solutions and pathways from the global community and civil society. The “green zone”, managed by COP28’s host country of UAE, is a space for youth representatives, artists, businesses, regional and local decision-makers and many other civil society actors to discuss, present and exchange ideas and solutions for a net-zero future in a more informal setting – for example in the form of presentations, podium discussions, poster sessions and exhibitions.

A total of approximately 70,000 participants is expected in Dubai for COP28.

Participation to COP28 and access to the blue zone is restricted to delegates, admitted observer organizations and accredited members of the press and media. Delegations from all 199 Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change will attend the conference.

While the public cannot attend the conference in person, many events in the blue zone, such as the plenary sessions of the bodies, the high-level segment with heads of states, many press conferences and side events will be webcast live for the public on unfccc.int. COP TV is another opportunity for the public to follow the conference and watch interesting interviews and themed segments.

While access to the blue zone is strictly limited, the green zone, managed by COP 28’s host country UAE, is more widely accessible. More information can be found on the host country’s website.

The host government and presidency of COP28 is the United Arab Emirates.

Every COP is hosted in a different region based on a rotational schedule between the five United Nations regional groups: The African Group, the Asia-Pacific Group, the Eastern Europe Group, the Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC) and the Western European and Others Group (WEOG). The role of the host government is to provide the premises and facilities, equipment, utilities and services for the COP. As the presidency, the host government’s role is also to engage other governments at the ministerial, head-of-delegation and technical levels to cooperate with the aim to deliver a successful COP 28.

Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and United Arab Emirates Special Envoy for Climate Change, has been appointed to serve as the COP28 President.

More about: How COPs are organized