The Conference of Parties – COP28 will come to a close on 12th December 2023. UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell calls for an urgent and unbiased implementation of climate commitment to protect people and planet in connection to “phasing out of fossil fuel”.
Mr.Angelious Michael, Director of India Peace Centre attending COP28 in Dubai as part of the ACT Alliance delegation representing faith communities highlights the importance of the voices from faith communities at this crucial time of climate emergency. He emphasized of the fact that faith communities have been making significant contributions in climate related events including of the United Nations. The UNFCCC for the first time made a space available for the Faith Pavilion within the COP28 framework. This amplifies the UN’s recognition of the contributions of faith groups and interfaith network towards climate discussions and climate solutions.
Women, youth and children have been more visible at the faith side events at COP28. The need for interfaith collaborations in response to climate change is being realized more than ever before as that provides adequate strength for achieving ambitious goals together.
ACT Alliance has been instrumental in creating space for faith perspectives to come into play for climate negotiations and climate justice and to help prioritize cross cutting issues such as Migration and Human Mobility, gender, Indigenous people, Water, land, food & agriculture to the high-level discussions.
While Loss and Damage funds was a crucial outcome at COP28 in the opening plenary, there are lot to achieve and implement including Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA), Mitigation, commitment for non-economic loss under loss and damage funds.
Countries must prioritize climate agenda and work collectively. We must not forget the Paris agreement of staying withing 1.5 bracket and the timeframe of achieving Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
