It Needs To Happen In Dubai, COP23 President Tells
COP23 president and former Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama, says COP28 needs to be a platform for all viable solutions to keep the hope of 1.5 alive.
Sunday 10 December 2023 | 13:52
Members of civil society organisations from the Pacific joined protestors at the COP28 venue in Expo City.
COP23 president and former Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama, says COP28 needs to be a platform for all viable solutions to keep the hope of 1.5 alive.
Mr Bainimarama said COP28 would be a funeral for the 1.5-Degree aspiration and the lowest-lying island countries and communities unless leaders charted a rapid phaseout of fossil fuels before 2040.
“As a veteran of these negotiations and president of COP23, I urge the world: Do not look away from the final days in Dubai,” Mr Bainimarama said.
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“We know the tactics of denial and delayism of the wealthy world all too well,” he said.
“In Scotland, two COPs ago, I remember our sense of betrayal when the final agreement shifted from a proposed ‘phase out’ of polluting fossil fuels to a watered ‘phase down’.
“It can’t happen again.”
He said fossil fuels were the main driver of the climate crisis.
“Their continued use and emissions must end. When island leaders arrived in Paris eight years ago, we didn’t put our survival up for negotiation.
“We wielded every ounce of our collective moral authority to enshrine the 1.5 Degree Celsius threshold in the Paris Accords and we’ve fought for it ever since.”
He said the science had not changed since Paris and neither had the stakes of inaction.
“This includes G20 nations scrapping fossil fuel subsidies, halting new investments in coal, oil, and gas, and committing to peak global emissions by 2025 with a 43 per cent reduction by 2030.
“Anything less contradicts reason, economics, and the Paris Agreement.”
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