With the landmark COP 28 deliberations in Dubai having commenced just over 24 hours ago Watchers of what, currently, is the world’s single most significant international gathering, will be keen to begin to get a sense of the direction in which the deliberations will go.
If it was for Sultan Al Jabir, whose presidency of the forum has been met with less than global approval deliver an opening presentation that would, among other things, help provide broad indications of the direction in which the overall proceedings are likely to go, a few things are already beginning to become evident. The first is that COP 28 will not be singing the swan song of fossil fuel recovery. The second is that the climate financing lobbyists are likely to come away from Dubai with some measure of commitment to the financing aimed at mitigating the current and looming challenges facing climate vulnerable countries.