Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, the appointed president of the COP28 summit, urged governments to raise their climate goals during the remaining two months before the summit. Al Jaber noted that participating countries in the United Nations climate summit must recognize how late they are in achieving their climate targets and agree on a plan to get back on track. He called on all governments to update their nationally determined contributions by September of this year to ensure alignment with the Paris Agreement, highlighting "the emission reduction commitments that each country has made to contribute to the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement to combat climate change."
During a meeting in Brussels with ministers and climate representatives from around twenty countries, he stated, "I urge all governments to update their nationally determined contributions to ensure alignment with the Paris Agreement," referring to the emission reduction commitments made by each country.
Al Jaber, in a speech to present the UAE's plan for the COP28 summit to be held in Dubai in November, mentioned that the event should also achieve international goals, which include tripling renewable energy, doubling energy storage, and increasing hydrogen production twofold by 2030. He emphasized, "We must be very honest about the gaps that need to be filled and the root causes and circumstances that have brought us to where we are today." He added, "Therefore, we need to apply a comprehensive and wide-ranging response that anticipates the future and focuses on actions to address these gaps practically." He reiterated his calls for a "gradual reduction" in the use of fossil fuels.
