Live updates: Follow the latest news on Cop28
The man who helped to strike the 2015 Paris Agreement said that the deal did spur action on climate change, although the world has fallen short of meeting its goals.
But former foreign minister of France Laurent Fabius, who chaired Cop21, where the agreement was finalised, called for “urgent” action to get the world back on target.
Speaking at Cop28 in Dubai, he said that the summit could be a global success if the conference's initial wins, particularly on the issue of loss and damage, were followed up by progress in other areas.
“Paris is a landmark, it is a framework and all the people that I've seen today say that, 'We're all children of the Paris Agreement,'” he said.
Mr Fabius said that before Paris, average global temperatures were set to rise by about 4°C above pre-industrial levels, but now the likelihood was of somewhere between 2.8°C and 3°C.
He said that currently “all the figures are not good” and that scientists indicated that the world was “off track” to meet its climate targets.
“We have to be 1.5 [°C], which means we must act, not only largely, but urgently,” he said.
“Not in 20 years. Right now. I'm sure that having discussed this with [Cop28 President Dr] Sultan Al Jaber, he knows that.”
Mr Fabius said that in terms of action to limit climate change, the world had to be “very clear about what's possible and not to delay it”.
“Companies, governments and ordinary people have to know they have progressed to replace fossil fuels by renewables,” he said.
“We have to insist on that. It will be part and parcel of the success of this Cop.”
Mr Fabius, who is the president of France's Constitutional Council, said that the start of Cop28 “has been good”.
He highlighted the action on the loss and damage fund that was set up at Cop27 in Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt last year to ensure that wealthier nations helped poorer countries to cope with the harm caused by climate change.
Pledges exceeding $700 million have been announced for the fund during Cop28, with donors including Germany and the UAE both contributing $100 million each.
However, referring to issues that remain on the table at Cop28, Mr Fabius said that there remained “two or three big ones” to forge an agreement on.
“We have the question of fossil fuels; we have the question of adaptation; and we have more generally the question of finance. We need public and private finance,” he said.
A key point of interest is on what the final text from Cop28 will say with respect to fossil fuels, in particular whether it will include a commitment to phasing them out rather than phasing them down.
On climate finance, campaigners have said that developed nations have fallen short of delivering $100 billion each year to assist developing nations to limit or mitigate their emissions and to adapt to climate change that was promised at Cop15 in Copenhagen in 2015.
There have been concerns expressed that much of the finance that has materialised has been in the form of loans rather than grants, which climate campaigners said could risk pitching poorer countries deeper into debt.
“I hope they will do their best; I'm sure they will do their best,” Mr Fabius said of the Cop28 negotiations.
“We have to deal with it because it's so important, not only for the success of this Cop but for the climate problem.
“The initial decisions, which have been good, could be pursued by a more general approach, particularly on the problems raised and it would make it a global success.”
What is a calorie?
A food calorie, or kilocalorie, is a measure of nutritional energy generated from what is consumed.
One calorie, is the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water by 1°C.
A kilocalorie represents a 1,000 true calories of energy.
Energy density figures are often quoted as calories per serving, with one gram of fat in food containing nine calories, and a gram of protein or carbohydrate providing about four.
Alcohol contains about seven calories a gram.
Correspondents
By Tim Murphy
(Grove Press)
Our legal advisor
Ahmad El Sayed is Senior Associate at Charles Russell Speechlys, a law firm headquartered in London with offices in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Hong Kong.
Experience: Commercial litigator who has assisted clients with overseas judgments before UAE courts. His specialties are cases related to banking, real estate, shareholder disputes, company liquidations and criminal matters as well as employment related litigation.
Education: Sagesse University, Beirut, Lebanon, in 2005.
Five famous companies founded by teens
There are numerous success stories of teen businesses that were created in college dorm rooms and other modest circumstances. Below are some of the most recognisable names in the industry:
- Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg and his friends started Facebook when he was a 19-year-old Harvard undergraduate.
- Dell: When Michael Dell was an undergraduate student at Texas University in 1984, he started upgrading computers for profit. He starting working full-time on his business when he was 19. Eventually, his company became the Dell Computer Corporation and then Dell Inc.
- Subway: Fred DeLuca opened the first Subway restaurant when he was 17. In 1965, Mr DeLuca needed extra money for college, so he decided to open his own business. Peter Buck, a family friend, lent him $1,000 and together, they opened Pete’s Super Submarines. A few years later, the company was rebranded and called Subway.
- Mashable: In 2005, Pete Cashmore created Mashable in Scotland when he was a teenager. The site was then a technology blog. Over the next few decades, Mr Cashmore has turned Mashable into a global media company.
- Oculus VR: Palmer Luckey founded Oculus VR in June 2012, when he was 19. In August that year, Oculus launched its Kickstarter campaign and raised more than $1 million in three days. Facebook bought Oculus for $2 billion two years later.
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SMEs in the UAE are defined by the number of employees, annual turnover and sector. For example, a “small company” in the services industry has six to 50 employees with a turnover of more than Dh2 million up to Dh20m, while in the manufacturing industry the requirements are 10 to 100 employees with a turnover of more than Dh3m up to Dh50m, according to Dubai SME, an agency of the Department of Economic Development.
A “medium-sized company” can either have staff of 51 to 200 employees or 101 to 250 employees, and a turnover less than or equal to Dh200m or Dh250m, again depending on whether the business is in the trading, manufacturing or services sectors.
About Okadoc
Date started: Okadoc, 2018
Founder/CEO: Fodhil Benturquia
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Healthcare
Size: (employees/revenue) 40 staff; undisclosed revenues recording “double-digit” monthly growth
Funding stage: Series B fundraising round to conclude in February
Investors: Undisclosed
Gender equality in the workplace still 200 years away
It will take centuries to achieve gender parity in workplaces around the globe, according to a December report from the World Economic Forum.
The WEF study said there had been some improvements in wage equality in 2018 compared to 2017, when the global gender gap widened for the first time in a decade.
But it warned that these were offset by declining representation of women in politics, coupled with greater inequality in their access to health and education.
At current rates, the global gender gap across a range of areas will not close for another 108 years, while it is expected to take 202 years to close the workplace gap, WEF found.
The Geneva-based organisation's annual report tracked disparities between the sexes in 149 countries across four areas: education, health, economic opportunity and political empowerment.
After years of advances in education, health and political representation, women registered setbacks in all three areas this year, WEF said.
Only in the area of economic opportunity did the gender gap narrow somewhat, although there is not much to celebrate, with the global wage gap narrowing to nearly 51 per cent.
And the number of women in leadership roles has risen to 34 per cent globally, WEF said.
At the same time, the report showed there are now proportionately fewer women than men participating in the workforce, suggesting that automation is having a disproportionate impact on jobs traditionally performed by women.
And women are significantly under-represented in growing areas of employment that require science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills, WEF said.
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