The United Arab Emirates promised on Tuesday to do “much more” to help fight global warming, ahead of the controversial holding of COP28 in the oil-rich Gulf state this year.
The country hosts this UN climate conference in Dubai at the end of November, whose environmental activists criticize the presidency embodied by Sultan al-Jaber, oil magnate and fervent defender of the hydrocarbon industry, a major emitter of CO2.
Among the first exporters of black gold in the world, the United Arab Emirates wants to contribute to keeping global warming “slightly below” 2°C compared to the pre-industrial level, in accordance with the commitments of the Paris Agreement, has said the Emirati Minister of Climate Change, Mariam Almheiri.
“We are trying to do our best in the current state of things. I think it will be 1.5°C. We are not there yet,” she admitted to the press in Dubai.
“We are not losing hope on this,” she added, admitting the country could “do a lot more” in this area.
The Paris Agreement, concluded in December 2015 at the end of COP21, aimed to keep the increase in global average temperature “well below 2°C” during this century and to continue efforts to rather limit to 1.5°C.
According to Mariam Almheiri, the United Arab Emirates are following a “pro-climate, pro-growth” approach with a zero carbon objective by 2050, the outlines of which will be unveiled before COP28.
The United Arab Emirates, bristling with hyper-air-conditioned skyscrapers, where large 4X4s abound, are one of the largest emitters of CO2 per capita in the world, with a population of around 10 million.
But the country is investing massively in green energies and betting on CO2 capture technologies, which are very expensive and still in their infancy.
2023-07-11 23:56:23
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