The two-week COP28, the 28th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference, under the United Arab Emirates (UAE) presidency is slated from November 30 in Dubai. In a message ahead of the COP28 that is bringing the world together, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on November 28 said: “It is profoundly shocking to stand on the ice of Antarctica and hear directly from scientists how fast the ice is melting. The cause is clear: fossil fuel pollution.” At COP28, leaders from across the globe must acknowledge the critical role of nature in tackling the climate crisis. Also the world cannot reach the Paris Agreement without halting and reversing nature loss, alongside rapid emissions cuts.
This COP (Conference of Parties) is crucial. The Global Stocktake, which will be finalised at COP28, has made it clear that more action is needed across all sectors to meet the Paris Agreement goals and has acknowledged that engaging indigenous people and local communities in implementing climate actions is crucial. The stocktake builds on evidence suggesting that scaling up the land rights and heeding the values and knowledge of indigenous and local communities represents one of the world’s most cost-effective solutions for protecting forests and preventing the damage that fuels climate change and biodiversity loss.
The outcome will set international norms for climate action over the next five years, and it must include an explicit call to accelerate and invest in nature. Leaders from tropical forest countries will demand urgent action to ensure countries are allowing indigenous peoples and local communities to influence local plans for implementing climate solutions that, in some regions, are already violating community rights and causing harm to biodiverse ecosystems that store and absorb carbon. Leaders at COP28 must not let the hopes of people around the world for a sustainable planet melt away.
At COP28, the world stands at a course-correcting moment. Leaders must acknowledge the critical role of nature in tackling the climate crisis. Nature can provide one-third of the solution needed by 2030, but it also proves essential for adaptation. Past commitments to protect nature and halt deforestation by 2030 are commendable, yet continuing deforestation and inadequate policy budgets underscore the urgency for tangible action. Governments and business leaders must pick up the pace and turn their words into action.
World leaders must adhere to binding agreements, including the immediate phase out of dirty energy, and to commit to meaningful climate reparations for communities that are bearing the brunt of the climate crisis. We cannot reach the Paris Agreement without halting and reversing nature loss, alongside rapid emissions cuts. The latest science from hundreds of experts in the Integrated Global Forest Assessment is clear: there can be no choice between nature and decarbonising our economy because we urgently need both. We need nature for climate action, and we need climate action for nature. We need to invest in nature.
