116 Nations Back COP28 Chair UAE’s Renewable Energy Initiative

Jiji Press

12:59 JST, December 3, 2023

Dubai (Jiji Press)—A total of 116 countries, including Japan, supported and signed the United Arab Emirates-proposed initiative to triple worldwide installed renewable energy generation capacity by 2030, in a two-day summit-level meeting held as part of U.N. climate talks in Dubai through Saturday.

The UAE, the chair of the ongoing 28th Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP28, announced this after the end of the summit-level gathering.

At COP28, the UAE has been seeking support for the initiative in order to achieve the Paris Agreement goal of curbing global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius or less above pre-industrial levels.

The country will continue working to adopt the initiative unanimously at the U.N. conference.

On the second day of the summit-level meeting, Tuvalu’s Prime Minister Kausea Natano said in a speech that there is no time to waste as sea levels have already started rising in the Pacific island nation due to climate change.

According to Natano, 40 pct of land in Tuvalu’s capital is covered with seawater at high tide.

On Thursday, when COP28 began, participating countries decided an operational framework for a fund aimed at supporting measures in Tuvalu and other developing countries to deal with loss and damage from climate change.

Natano welcomed the decision in the speech.

Japan announced a plan to contribute $10 million to the fund. Other countries followed, including the UAE, which offered to provide $100 million.

More than $660 million have been pledged for the fund as of Saturday, according to the UAE.

At Saturday’s session of the summit-level meeting, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said his country will provide $25 million to the fund and will triple its financial contribution to climate change measures by 2026.

At Saturday’s session of the summit-level meeting, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said his country will provide $25 million to the fund and will triple its financial contribution to climate change measures by 2026.

The focus of COP28, which is set to run until Dec. 12, is whether participating countries will be able to agree to strengthen their greenhouse gas reduction targets in order to achieve the Paris Agreement goal.

On the first day of the summit-level meeting Friday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for a phaseout of fossil fuel, which emits huge amounts of greenhouse gases.

COP28 ministerial talks are scheduled to start Friday. From Japan, Environment Minister Shintaro Ito may attend the talks.