‘Not there yet’: COP host UAE vows to cut more emissions

‘Not there yet’: COP host UAE vows to cut more emissions

DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates promised Tuesday to do more to help keep global warming below the 1.5 degrees tipping point after falling short in its latest plan to slash emissions. The oil-rich Gulf monarchy, which will host this year’s COP28 UN climate talks, last week unveiled plans to cut domestic emissions by 19 percent of 2019 levels by 2030. Under these plans, the UAE would contribute to keeping warming to “just below” 2.0 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the UAE’s climate change minister said—slightly outside the goals set out in the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement.

“We’re striving towards the best that we can do with what we have now. I think it will be 1.5 — we’re not there yet,” Mariam Almheiri told a media briefing about the UAE plans. “We are not losing hope here. We’re continuing our efforts on this because just from our experience of seeing what we’ve done in this improvement, I just feel there’s a lot more in there that we can do,” she added. At COP21 in the French capital, countries pledged to try to keep warming “well below” 2.0C and to pursue “all measures” not to exceed the key 1.5C threshold.

The fossil fuels