Commitment to save the planet

Hopes are high world leaders meeting now in Dubai during the Conference of Parties 28 or COP28 would find themselves committed to achieving a “breakthrough” to save the planet.

Hot issues during the 13-day summit ending on Tuesday next week range from how to contain fuel fossils to regulating carbon emissions.

Over millions of years, heat and pressure from Earth’s crust decomposed these organisms into one of the three main kinds of fuel: oil (also called petroleum), natural gas, or coal. These fuels are called fossil fuels, since they are formed from the remains of dead animals and plants.

Climatologists and other experts are also tackling international funding to help countries adapt to climate change, with developing countries, including the Philippines, demanding more contributions from the industrialized world.

We remember Pope Francis earlier on urging world leaders at the COP28 to move beyond their national interests and vigorously commit to the political changes needed to tackle climate change.

The 86-year-old pope, leader of 1.36 billion Catholics worldwide, had appealed for “concrete political changes” to prevent the planet’s climate spinning dangerously out of control.

“We need to go beyond the constraints of specific interests and nationalities, the models of the past, and embrace a common vision,” Francis said in a written statement read out by an aide.

We second the pontiff’s call that the world should stop burning the coal, oil and gas that are generating global-heating greenhouse gas pollution.

Countries must also make obligatory and verifiable improvements in saving energy, expanding the use of renewables and helping people learn to become less reliable on fossil fuels.

|We agree with the observation by analysts that an ambitious loss and damages fund agreed on last year to support poorer nations to help manage the negative effects of climate change has yet to be put into place.

World leaders agreed to the fund after COP27 last year, but they have failed to reach consensus on the most important questions of all – which states will pay into it and how much.

Countries face the first review of their progress towards the Paris Agreement, a landmark international treaty on limiting carbon emissions signed at the COP21.

Some are also criticizing the inclusion of oil and gas-linked representatives in such summits.

Why is the COP28 Dubai summit that important?

Greenhouse gases trap heat and make the planet warmer. Human activities are responsible for almost all of the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere over the last 150 years.

The largest source of greenhouse gas emissions from human activities in the United States, for instance, is from burning fossil fuels for electricity, heat, and transportation.

It would be absorbing how the United States – for that matter, other developed nations – will address this issue at the Dubai summit.

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