World leaders gathered at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, to seal the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The 21st session of the COP (COP21) in 2015 led to the landmark Paris Agreement, where countries pledged to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions this century and limit global average warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. COP28 is a milestone moment, as nations for the first time formally review progress since the Paris Agreement.
The UAE is committed to raising ambition and leading by example and commits to cut absolute national greenhouse gas emissions by 19% by 2030. We will renew nature by planting 100 million mangroves. And we will triple our share of renewable power this decade, while all clean energy will reach 30% of capacity by 2030.
The UAE is clearly leading by example as they seem to be doing just like the rest of the western countries, doing promises, committing, planning and acknowledging without much hard numbers of track record, note the words “will”, “committed”, “ambition”.
I have taken the UAE as an example, but they are just that, an example, simply because those commitments are stated on the COP28 website but is in line with pretty much all other countries, few exceptions.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is one of the world’s chief oil exporters and there have been recent allegations that they planning to leverage the climate summit for new oil and gas deals. Cop28’s president Sultan al-Jaber, who is also CEO of UAE’s national oil company Adnoc, has denied these claims.
Cop28 is the first time that countries will assess progress towards this goal in what is being called the Global Stocktake, and it is unlikely to be positive given the UN has the Earth on track for a catastrophic 3C increase by the end of the century under the emissions reduction policies currently in place.
This is about time as right now we have had a lot of commitments with very little verification where we are in terms of those commitments. We have been going 27 years and 8 years since the Paris agreement without anyone really knowing if we will achieve the promises made.
Data obtained from the EU’s Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research 2023 report shows that half the countries have achieved a reduction while the other half have grown their emissions per capita.[ t CO2eq/cap].
UAE had had a reduction down to 60%, the EU 69%, USA 73% and New Zealand 81%. According to the data, Ukraine has been a world leader with a reduction down to 26% from 1990, followed closely by the UK down to 46%.
Let’s hope the trend especially for the carbon intense emission countries will continue.
Emissions by country 2022 [t CO2eq/cap]
Country | 1990 | 2000 | 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | % reduction from 1990 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ukraine | 18.5 | 9.17 | 9.47 | 8.65 | 6.74 | 6.3 | 6 | 4.84 | 26% |
United Kingdom | 13.75 | 11.89 | 11.31 | 9.4 | 7.72 | 6.06 | 6.29 | 6.27 | 46% |
Finland | 17.12 | 16.6 | 16.63 | 17.33 | 12.97 | 10.42 | 10.25 | 9.76 | 57% |
Sweden | 9.25 | 9.1 | 9.01 | 8.37 | 6.83 | 6.2 | 6.03 | 5.91 | 64% |
United Arab Emirates | 45.58 | 40.48 | 37.04 | 27.19 | 29.79 | 27.64 | 28.86 | 29.33 | 64% |
France and Monaco | 9.4 | 9.13 | 8.92 | 8.17 | 7.21 | 6.17 | 6.71 | 6.5 | 69% |
United States | 24.41 | 25.49 | 24.06 | 21.66 | 19.66 | 16.94 | 17.75 | 17.9 | 73% |
Ireland | 16.14 | 19.39 | 17.88 | 14.21 | 13.62 | 12.17 | 12.4 | 12.58 | 78% |
Iceland | 17.36 | 14.03 | 14.46 | 15.57 | 14.81 | 12.43 | 12.37 | 13.7 | 79% |
New Zealand | 20.76 | 21.2 | 21.3 | 19.5 | 18.78 | 17.63 | 17.46 | 16.83 | 81% |
Norway | 14.81 | 16.09 | 16.08 | 15.59 | 14.29 | 12.86 | 13.03 | 12.6 | 85% |
Argentina | 8.03 | 8.19 | 8.81 | 8.4 | 8.64 | 7.89 | 8.24 | 8.27 | 103% |
Brazil | 4.66 | 5.33 | 5.71 | 5.98 | 6.35 | 5.97 | 6.24 | 6.05 | 130% |
Saudi Arabia | 14.6 | 17.1 | 19.51 | 22.59 | 24.46 | 21.76 | 22.12 | 22.64 | 155% |
Chile | 4.59 | 5.78 | 5.92 | 6.32 | 6.82 | 6.98 | 7.56 | 7.31 | 159% |
Kuwait | 23.75 | 42.02 | 51.6 | 41.4 | 35.82 | 34.6 | 35.78 | 37.96 | 160% |
China | 3.47 | 4.23 | 6.38 | 8.51 | 9.65 | 10.45 | 10.94 | 10.95 | 316% |