Written by by Katie Gibbs, CNN
The landmark UN climate conference will be held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2023, after a plan was agreed at a UN summit in Poland this weekend, CNN reports.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held a climate summit in the Polish city of Katowice on Saturday, which resulted in a decision on international climate finance.
Businesses and governments were invited to support an ambitious goal that was set out in the Paris Climate Agreement: to limit global warming to 1.5C, or 2.7F, by the end of the century.
Under the UN’s proposal, countries pledged to provide $100 billion in annual funding by 2020 for climate adaptation and mitigation, equating to a threefold increase from existing funding levels.
“In a previous round of climate financing, the UN launched a support package worth $18.2 billion,” said Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg after the conference, “And it’s just in the first phase of the commitments. This $100 billion, I think, is what I described as a three-fold increase, in the same way that we need to make sure that the pledges that are made are kept”.
In his opening speech to the summit, Solberg called for a rapid shift away from “internalised” fossil fuel subsidies and for developing countries to scale up their ability to cope with the “man-made effects of climate change.”
“The loss and damage that climate change is wreaking on the world is evidence enough of what’s in store,” Solberg said. “But it is also a call to action.”
In Paris, the agreement called for developed countries to develop a “mechanism” for funding adaptation and mitigation efforts by developing countries, beyond the current $100 billion.
Speaking at the UN climate summit on Saturday, UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said the country would “put resources for a renewable energy revolution at the service of the planet, moving toward a zero-emissions economy and future.”
The UAE’s World Future Energy Summit, which wrapped up Sunday, drew government ministers and business leaders from around the world.