COP28: UAE Allows Environmental Activists To Protest

COP28 President-Designate, Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber - who also serves as the Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) - noted that there will be a space for climate activists to peacefully protest at the upcoming COP28 event.

The upcoming COP28, hosted by UAE, will be held from Nov. 30 to Dec. 12 this year in Expo City Dubai.

During a meeting in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, Minister Ahmed Al Jaber and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Executive Secretary Simon Stiell signed an official Host Country Agreement.

After signing the agreement, the COP28 President-Designate noted that the upcoming event is centered around four key pillars including fast-tracking the energy transition; fixing climate finance; focusing on people, lives and livelihoods; and underpinning everything with full inclusivity.

"The COP28 Presidency believes inclusivity is a critical enabler to achieving transformative progress across the climate agenda. Only by rising above our differences and working together can we raise our shared ambition and deliver progress to keep 1.5°C within reach," Minister Al Jaber emphasized, WAM reported.

Secretary Stiell also reaffirmed the same and said, "As custodians of the process, the secretariat is dedicated to supporting the Parties implement their climate commitments, including under the Paris Agreement. To drive climate action and ambition forward, we are firmly committed to ensuring that UN values are upheld at COPs."

Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015 to cover climate change mitigation, adaptation, and finance. It was signed on April 22, 2016, by over 195 states including European Union. This agreement aimed to strengthen the response to climate change threats on a global level and it became effective on Nov. 4, 2016.

He went on to share that they are making every possible effort to ensure that "voices of youth, women, local communities, Indigenous Peoples, and those most impacted by climate change will be heard and reflected."

UNFCCC assured that it will work together with this year's host country, UAE to ensure that COP28 is the most inclusive UN Climate Change Conference to date.

"To this effect, we have written to all Parties urging increased participation and meaningful engagement of youth, women, local communities, and Indigenous Peoples as members of Party and observer delegations to COP, and in climate decision-making, policy, and action in the lead up to and during COP28 by providing appropriate quality and modalities of participation," it explained.

UAE's state-owned oil company Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) announced last month that it has started constructing the Middle East's first high-speed hydrogen refueling station in Masdar City to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, helping climate change's negative impact.