Cop 28 presidency says world is focused on climate

The world is focused on the climate challenge despite increasing geopolitical risks ahead of the UN Cop 28 summit, the event's director general and special representative Majid al-Suwaidi said today at a pre-Cop ministerial meeting.

"Today we have shown that the world is really focused on that Cop and it being a game changer," al-Suwaidi said in response to a question on whether the conflict between Israel and Hamas could derail climate diplomacy.

"We have 70 ministers. We have 100 delegations. This is an unprecedented [level of] participation by delegations at any pre-Cop," he said.

But al-Suwaidi acknowledged that the pre-Cop meeting has "immense" work to be done. The Cop 28 president Sultan al-Jaber earlier today urged countries to seek "common ground" to resolve disagreements over the future of fossil fuels and renewables ahead of the UN climate summit.

Asked whether an agreement on the setup of a loss and damage fund will be reached, al-Suwaidi only said the Cop 28 presidency is not sitting idle in face of an impasse on the matter.

"We've called for a fifth meeting of the transitional committee," he said. "As you know, only four were planned. We called for that extra one to make sure we saw the progress."

The UNFCCC's transitional committee on loss and damage met in Egypt in October for supposedly the fourth and final time ahead of Cop 28 to agree recommendations on the loss and damage fund agreed in principle at Cop 27. But it made little progress on key issues, including who should pay in and who should benefit. The discord in Egypt reflects deeper political divisions and underlines the difficulties of reaching consensus when Cop negotiators gather in Dubai at the end of November.

But al-Suwaidi insists the Cop 28 presidency will deliver.

"Yes, it is 100pc deliverable at Cop 28," he said. "It is mandated that we deliver. It was agreed in Sharm el-Sheikh and we as a Cop 28 team presidency are laser focused on delivering that as part of the overall package of outcomes that we will deliver."

By Bachar Halabi and Georgia Gratton