The world is at a watershed moment. The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) findings point to a worsening situation in current levels of global heating.
If we are to keep our aspiration of limiting this to 1.5°C alive, the world must cut its CO2 emissions by at least 48 percent by 2030.
Only this way do we stand a chance of making meaningful progress towards an emissions-free world in the future. There is no time. We have no choice.
Climate change continues to disrupt food security and access to water and heighten the risk of armed conflict over natural resources in the Global South.
Thousands are dying every year from heatstrokes, heat cramps and heat exhaustion.
Scientific findings show that 117 million Africans will be affected by a sea-level swell of 0.3 metres by 2030 at the current rise rate.
Coastal communities will bear the brunt of this rise, with livelihoods for millions destroyed and tens of cultural and heritage sites going into ruins.
But it is not just Africa that is at risk of the socioeconomic meltdown as a result of climate change.
These impacts will spill over the country and regional borders, with supply chains snapped, markets affected and trade paralysed.
Our leaders have failed to make more ambitious commitments. We have perpetually fallen short of honouring the pledges we have made.
And now these implementation gaps have us all headed for an apocalyptic future. The die is cast. Unless we act decisively. Now.
In the greatest war yet of our generation, leadership is critical. Going forward, leadership will separate states that take a giant leap towards combating the disaster with a sense of urgency and those that sit still as the climate catastrophe overwhelms humanity.
But it is the COP Presidency that will determine the survival of our planet and humanity. The presidency bears the weight of the planet on its shoulders. It must stand firm and fearlessly push for a cleaner, fairer and just planet.
All eyes of the world are on the United Arab Emirates as it hosts the climate conference later this year.
Many around the world have cast aspersions on the UAE, being a rich country on account of oil and gas.
Yet there couldn’t possibly be a better time to put doubters to shame.
In the last 15 years, for instance, UAE has invested more than $40 billion in renewables. Plans are underway to invest an additional $160 billion by 2050.
This is good leadership. But as we all know, it is not sufficient. The key to limiting global heating to 1.5C requires a phase-out of fossil fuels in addition to harnessing our vast endowment of renewable energy.
Having Sultan al-Jaber as head of COP28 is partly a win for the UAE and for the world. In his two-decade career, Al Jaber has demonstrated his persuasive power and deal-making prowess, notably by shaping his country’s path to clean energy through Masdar.
Now it is time for the chemical engineer to strike hard where it matters and give the planet a decent deal: a phase-out of all fossil fuels.
The writer is a climate justice advocate and director of energy and climate think-tank, Power Shift Africa.
