<article><p class="lead">Sultan al-Jaber, the UAE's climate envoy and president-designate of the UN Cop 28 climate summit, said today that the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C is "non-negotiable".</p><p>Al-Jaber, who was speaking at the the World Sustainable Development Summit in New Delhi, India, was referring to the 2015 Paris Agreement temperature limit. The deal calls for global warming to stay "well below" a 2°C rise in pre-industrial temperatures and ideally limit it to a 1.5°C rise, but the goal came under further threat after little progress was made on mitigation at the UN Cop 27 climate summit last year. Mitigation refers to efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions causing global warming.</p><p>At the end of Cop 27, the UK's lead negotiator and Cop 26 president Alok Sharma said that the 1.5°C limit remained on life support, adding that "those of us who came to Egypt to keep 1.5°C alive… <a href="https://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/2394960">have had to fight relentlessly to hold the line</a>", while European Commission executive vice-president Frans Timmermans said "there were too many attempts to roll back what was agreed on in Glasgow [at Cop 26]".</p><p>Al-Jaber's goal to keep 1.5°C "alive", as the UAE prepares to host the Cop 28 climate negotiations in November, offers cautious optimism, given he acknowledged earlier this year that the world is <a href="https://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/2419624">"way off track"</a> when it comes to meeting the Paris goals.</p><p>But al-Jaber stressed that "[the world] cannot continue business as usual," and that "a true comprehensive paradigm shift in our approach to mitigation, adaptation, finance and loss and damage" was needed.</p><p>On mitigation, he said that there is a need to "rapidly build the clean energy systems of tomorrow while making the energy systems of today much cleaner". </p><p>"We need to accelerate an energy transition that leaves no one behind, particularly the 800mn of people across the global south who have no access to energy today," he added.</p><h2>India renewables partnership</h2><p>Al-Jaber lauded India's growing economy and influence, adding that the country's sustainable development is critical not just for India but for the whole world," as it is one of the largest consumers of energy.</p><p>Al-Jaber, who also heads Abu Dhabi's state-owned Adnoc and chairman of state-owned renewables company Masdar, added that "the UAE and Masdar will explore all opportunities of partnerships with India to contribute to its high growth low carbon pathway."</p><p class="bylines">By Bachar Halabi</p></article>
