The irony won’t be lost on you that COP28, this year’s UN climate summit, is hosted by the UAE. If it all goes well, maybe I’ll see you for Moscow Pride, skiing in the Sahara, or a comedy gig in Germany.

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World leaders gather for COP28 in Dubai

The biggest gathering of world leaders this year kicks off in Dubai today. The UAE is hosting COP28, the annual United Nations climate change summit, against a backdrop of devastating floods in Libya, wildfires in Europe, and the hottest summer on record.

This year, there are four themes:

1. Fast-tracking the transition to clean energy. Slashing emissions before 2030 to limit global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

2. Putting nature, people, lives, and livelihoods at the heart of climate action. This includes helping vulnerable communities adapt to climate change.

3. Fixing climate finance. Making it affordable, available, and accessible to developing countries.

4. Mobilizing inclusivity. Ensuring decisions and discussions on how solutions are implemented are done in collaboration with indigenous people and local communities.

But let’s address the elephant in the room. Eyebrows have been raised about the optics of holding the event in an oil state. This is important because the host nation sets the tone and initial direction of the discussion. Concerns were heightened further when the BBC reported leaked documents that revealed the UAE planned to use its role to strike oil and gas deals.

Climate activist Greta Thunberg has previously been critical of UN climate summits in general, saying they were just “blah, blah, blah”, but progress has been made at them in the past. Leaders adopted the Paris Agreement at COP21, the first time the world collectively agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. Nearly 200 countries pledged to keep global temperature rises "well below" 2C and "pursue efforts" to limit them to 1.5C.

But the UN is concerned countries still aren’t doing enough to meet the Paris goals, and this will be one of the biggest issues to thrash out over the next two weeks. This year is particularly important because the Paris Agreement requires nations to assess their progress every five years in a process known as the “global stocktake”. The first one will conclude at COP28, when climate negotiators will discuss the results and identify next steps.

One of those next steps could be around the language used on fossil fuels: should the world aim to reduce their production and use over time, or phase them out completely? This could pit the host nation against other countries who favor a full phase out.

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