Around the world, millions are living in terror, danger and despair. Innocent people are being killed by conflicts and violence, and more intense extreme weather events wrought by climate change are robbing many of their health, livelihoods and even lives. Humanity is facing the challenge of how to address these crises.
This week, an important United Nations conference on climate change, COP28, ended in Dubai. Some were skeptical from the outset about the meeting being able to deliver an ambitious agreement between the 198 parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) under the presidency of the United Arab Emirates — a big oil producer. Nonetheless, there was some hope that nations would agree on a phase out of fossil fuels.
COP28 was successful, in a way, in delivering positive signals. Nations agreed to triple renewable energy, double the speed of energy efficiency and transition away from reliance on fossil fuels to power their energy systems. This is indeed historical.