Petersberg Climate Dialogue

The Petersberg Dialogue on Climate Change was held in Berlin recently to discuss the way forward towards COP28.

• Around 40 countries attended the conference.
• It was hosted by Germany and the United Arab Emirates, which is going to host 28th Conference of Parties (COP28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). 
• Purpose:
  • The need for “cleaning-up our economies — breaking our fossil fuel addiction and driving decarbonisation in every sector” to achieve a 1.5 degree global warming pathway was discussed.
  • The Agenda calls for coal phaseout by 2030 in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, and
  • By 2040 in all others, as well as achieving net Zero electricity generation and decarbonising major sectors.

COP 28:

• The 2023 UN Climate Change Conference is going to convene from 30 November to 12 December 2023 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).
• It will comprise of:
  • the 28th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 28);
  • the fifth meeting of the COP serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA 5);
  • the 18th meeting of the COP serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 18);
  • the 59th meeting of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI 59); and
  • The 59th meeting of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA 59).

Significance of the event:

• The first Global Stocktake of the implementation of the Paris Agreement will conclude at COP 28.
• Each stocktake is a two-year process that happens every five years, with the aim of assessing the world’s collective progress towards achieving its climate goals.

Key points for Paris Agreement (COP 21):

• The Climate Ambition Summit to mark the 5th Anniversary of the Paris Agreement started on 12th December 2020 at Glasgow, Scotland.
• It aimed to provide a platform for government and non-governmental leaders to demonstrate their commitment to the Paris Agreement and the multilateral process.
• The Goal of Paris agreement was:
  • To curtail the rise of global temperature this century below 2-degree Celsius, above pre-industrial levels; and also pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
  • Develop mechanisms to help and support countries that are very vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change. An example would be countries like the Maldives facing threat due to sea-level rise.
  • Confirms the obligation that developed countries have towards developing countries, by providing them financial and technological support.