By Lee Kap-soo

The Embassy of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Seoul kicked off the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) by hosting the “Road to COP28” in the UAE at the Four Seasons Hotel in Gwanghwamun, Seoul on Aug. 31.

The event was held to promote COP28, which will take place in Dubai, UAE, from November 30 to December 12, and to share the UAE's plans and solutions to tackle the climate crisis as host of COP28.

"The UAE has demonstrated a strong commitment to renewable energy, environmental protection, and sustainable development," said H.E. Abdulla Saif Al Nuaimi, Ambassador of the UAE to Korea, in his opening remarks. "COP28 will help shape our response to climate change and highlight the important role that innovative ideas, technologies, and partnerships can play."

"COP28 is a crucial event to assess progress towards achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement and to identify areas where faster action is needed," said Ban Ki-moon, President of the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), in a video. "To this end, we hope that COP28 will build momentum for real action by pressuring world leaders to stop making empty promises without real action."

"Currently, South Korea is making efforts to achieve genuine climate goals, such as organizing the Climate Adaptation Week," said Chang-Heum Lee, head of the Climate and Carbon Policy Office at the Ministry of Environment, adding that the upcoming COP28 will be an opportunity to accelerate efforts to address the global climate crisis.

"We are increasingly witnessing extreme weather events such as extreme heat waves, unprecedented flooding and devastating wildfires that pose a serious threat to our lives, and the message from the scientific community and nature is loud and clear. we must act urgently to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions," said Ambassador and Deputy Minister for Climate Change Kim Hyo-eun.

In his keynote address at COP28, COP28 Director-General Majid Al-Suwaidi emphasized the need for strong action on climate change, saying, "We have not done enough to reduce carbon emissions or mitigate climate change, and we need to cut emissions by 43% by 2030 to meet the goal of limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees."

The UNFCCC COP is held annually to discuss the specific implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which was signed at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992. The Kyoto Protocol was signed at COP3 in 1997, and the Paris Agreement was signed at COP21 in 2015, agreeing to limit the global average temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius. At the COP28, the Global Sustainable Transition (GST) will be conducted to evaluate the implementation of the Paris Agreement adopted at the COP21 plenary session in December 2015.