- Formal negotiations
- Finance
- Global review
- Global report
- Digital sequence information
- Harmful subsidies
- Marine biodiversity
- Planning, monitoring, reporting and review
- Article 8(j) implementation
- Biodiversity and climate change
- Links with other bodies
- Around the COP
- Armenian presidency
- Protests
- Lobbying and influence
- Carbon and biodiversity markets
The United Arab Emirates – host nation of last year’s COP28 climate summit – has become the first country to submit a climate action plan to the United Nations under the latest round of updates, setting an emissions reduction target for 2035.
In its third Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), the oil and gas rich Gulf state said it will aim to reduce emissions by 47% between 2019 and 2035 on its way to reaching net zero by 2050.
The plan says that the UAE “recognises the urgency of the climate crisis” and its new NDC is “paving the way to ensure 1.5C remains within reach”.
It plans to cut emissions through measures like installing solar and nuclear power, investing in carbon capture and storage and carbon dioxide removal technologies and producing oil and gas in a less polluting way.
As called for by the UN’s climate chief Simon Stiell last month, the target includes all greenhouse gases and all sectors of the economy.
Climate campaigners criticised the UAE, however, for failing to include any measures to restrain the production of oil and gas, which is projected to rise by a third by 2035. Under UN carbon accounting rules, the emissions from the consumption of the UAE’s oil and gas abroad are not counted towards its own emissions.
While the UAE aims for a 47% cut, climate scientists working with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change say that global emissions need to fall 60% between 2019 and 2035. But countries are expected to move at different paces towards that target depending on their levels of development.
In its new NDC, the UAE says that its 2035 emission reduction target “balances ambition with fairness, ensuring that its contributions are significant but achievable given its national circumstances”.
The UAE’s previous NDC contained a target to reduce emissions 19% by 2030. But Climate Action Tracker has said that, based on its current policies, emissions instead look set to rise by about 16-20% by the end of the decade.
Fresh round of NDCs
All the 194 countries that signed up to the Paris climate agreement are supposed to submit a more ambitious NDC every five years.
The first set was produced just after the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015, the second came in around the COP26 climate summit in 2020 and this third iteration is supposed to be published by February next year.
The UAE is the first country to publish a new NDC in this round. A few others – particularly those of the COP29 host country Azerbaijan and the COP30 host Brazil – are expected to be announced at COP29 or by the end of the year.
US election: Climate experts react to Donald Trump’s victory
All three governments, known as the “Troika”, have said their targets will be aligned with the strongest Paris Agreement goal to limit global warming to 1.5C. But, as Brazilian climate negotiator Liliam Chagas said in June, “there is no multilaterally agreed methodology” on what that means in practice. “It’s up to each one to decide,” she said.
While it has not been agreed between governments, the Climate Action Tracker project has a methodology for judging what level of global warming individual NDCs are compatible with.
It found that no NDC in the second round was compatible with the 1.5C limit and only a handful – including the UAE’s – were compatible with keeping the rise in global temperatures below 2C. It has yet to judge the UAE’s latest NDC.
Calls to end fossil fuel expansion
E3G analyst Steffen Menzel praised the UAE for keeping its promise to publish an early NDC. But, he said, the “ambition level and determination towards decarbonisation is debatable and needs further scrutiny”.
“Promoting further fossil fuel expansion cannot be ‘1.5-aligned’,” he added – a sentiment widely shared by other campaigners.
Emerging economies set up COP29 agenda fight over trade measures
Shady Khalil, Oil Change International strategist, said the UAE’s NDC ignores the “urgent need to immediately halt fossil fuel expansion everywhere”. Greenpeace Middle East and North Africa campaigner Hanen Keskes said the UAE’s wealth and influence give it a unique opportunity to be the first major oil and gas producer “to take the bold step of halting fossil fuel expansion”.
The International Energy Agency has said that new projects to expand fossil fuel production are not compatible with the 1.5C warming limit.
Under UN carbon accounting rules, emissions are counted where they are released into the atmosphere. A barrel of oil produced in the UAE but burned in a power station in the US is counted towards the US’s emissions.
Climate Action Tracker researcher Niklas Höhne told a webinar on Thursday that the emissions from the UAE’s fossil fuel exports are three times as high as the country’s domestic emissions.
Because of these accounting rules, the vast majority of NDCs do not include plans to restrain fossil fuel production. On the same webinar, Climate Home asked Selwin Hart, climate adviser to the UN Secretary-General António Guterres, whether they should.
Selwin Hart, special adviser to the UN secretary-general on climate action (Photo: Juan Manuel Herrera/OAS/OEA/Flickr)
He replied that he “would love to see all of the NDCs address both production and consumption of fossil fuels” – but they are “nationally determined documents”, so “countries can decide what they wish to include”.
Speaking after him, E3G analyst Alden Meyer said he could be “a little more blunt than someone is able to be in [Hart’s] diplomatic position”. “If a country wants to be viewed as 1.5C-aligned and it’s a major producer and exporter of fossil fuels, it has to show how it’s going to address both the supply and demand side there and have a credible transition strategy,” Meyer said.
Andreas Sieber, associate policy and campaigns director at 350.org, told Climate Home he expected Colombia and perhaps the UK to include halting of oil and gas expansion in their new NDCs.
Oil Change’s Khalil called for Brazil and Azerbaijan – likely to be among the next few countries to publish an updated NDC – to “step up”. “If they want to be climate champions, they must call for a halt on fossil fuel expansion,” he said.
(Reporting by Joe Lo; editing by Megan Rowling)
The post UAE kicks off new global round of UN climate plans appeared first on Climate Home News.
Continue Reading
Prepared by a coalition of nine Western Australian union, industry, conservation, and community organisations—including UnionsWA, the Conservation Council WA, and the Smart Energy Council—the WA Clean Energy, Jobs & Industry Plan provides a practical roadmap to transform Western Australia into a clean energy powerhouse while creating thousands of secure local jobs.
Western Australia stands at a pivotal crossroads: lead the global clean energy economy or watch investment, future industries, and secure jobs go elsewhere. The WA Clean Energy, Jobs & Industry Plan outlines a transformative blueprint to harness the state’s world-class solar and wind resources. Discover how legislated renewable targets, green iron manufacturing, and a dedicated regional training strategy can generate tens of thousands of local jobs, lower household bills, and build a resilient, net-zero future for all Western Australians.
WA needs a clear and forward-thinking plan if it is going to become a competitive renewable energy powerhouse and maintain its economic strength through the energy transition.
“Western Australians know a faster renewable energy transition will lower their household expenses and prevent harmful climate pollution. But the community also needs clear direction to ensure this transition will create jobs, lower costs and not cause undue environmental harm.
“Here, sectors representing a broad range of interests have laid the groundwork for those outcomes, clearly outlining what is needed to create a future for WA that is good for the environment, for the climate, for workers and for the economy.
Summary
The WA Clean Energy, Jobs & Industry Plan sets out a strategic roadmap to position Western Australia as a global clean energy superpower while creating thousands of secure local jobs.
The report establishes three overarching goals:
- Creating local employment.
- Maintaining industrial competitiveness.
- Lowering household energy costs
To realize this vision, the framework details actionable measures to follow on from the recent WA Government announcement of a 75% Renewable Energy Target by 2031 for the South West Interconnected System. This includes developing a statewide Renewable Energy Target, coordinating statewide workforce and training pipelines, strategically planning regional infrastructure to safeguard high-value biodiversity and cultural heritage, and ensuring equitable benefit-sharing through household electrification incentives and First Nations equity partnerships. Ultimately, the plan highlights that establishing clear policy and regulatory certainty will unlock lower energy bills, boost power reliability, and secure the state’s global competitiveness in emerging green commodity export markets.
Key Findings
- Statewide Renewable Energy Target and Emissions Reduction Targets: The report calls for a statewide RET and 1.5°C aligned emission reduction targets to remove policy risk, lower capital costs, and attract clean energy investment.
- Transformative Job Creation: Accelerating the transition offers massive employment prospects, including up to 8,800 solar and battery jobs by 2050, as well as 24,000 ongoing and 11,000 construction jobs in a commercial green iron industry.
- Industrial Electrification & Competitiveness: Requiring large gas users to adopt binding electrification timetables and providing concessional financing will protect existing energy-intensive manufacturers from rising energy costs and impending domestic gas shortfalls.
- Green Commodity Export Leadership: Western Australia can build new export markets in green iron, green ammonia, and offshore oil/gas decommissioning by constructing shared common-user infrastructure and setting dedicated Green Commodity Export Targets.
- Coordinated Workforce & Training Pipeline: To address critical skill shortages the plan recommends establishing a WA Clean Energy Jobs Plan 2050, three regional training hubs, and dedicated pathways for female and under-represented apprentices.
- Environmental Safeguards & Community Benefits: Fast-tracked development must be paired with State Planning Policies that avoid high-biodiversity and cultural heritage lands, mandate new data centres to run on additional renewable power, and deliver household electrification rebates and First Nations equity partnerships.
What you can do
WA has an opportunity to lead on sustainable, clean energy and associated industries. You can help by:
- Sending an email to Environment Minister Murray Watt and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, calling on them to reject Browse.
- Sharing this story to help more Australians understand what’s at stake.
- Encouraging your friends and family to take action.
Countries have completed the first “global review” of their progress towards reversing nature loss by 2030 at the COP17 biodiversity talks in Yerevan, Armenia.
The review “notes with deep concern” that, unless action is “rapidly accelerated”, the goal to reverse nature loss and meet a set of 23 targets by 2030 “will not be achieved”.
It “urges” countries to accelerate action, including by “increased ambition in addressing the gaps”.
Much of the discussions in Yerevan focused on how to raise the necessary funds to help developing countries protect nature.
Some major economies pushed to expand the range of nations that are expected to provide finance, with countries agreeing at the end of the two weeks of talks that non-donors that want to contribute can “signal interest” before COP18.
This came after developed countries failed to meet a target to significantly ramp up nature finance over the last few years.
It also came as a landmark fund agreed at COP16 in Colombia to pay communities for the genetic resources derived from nature stands nearly empty two years on.
The Yerevan talks marked the halfway point of the “Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework” (GBF), the “Paris Agreement for nature” first made in 2022 and due to be achieved by 2030.
During the nearly 12-hour-long final plenary, countries voted for Quito, Ecuador, to host the COP18 nature talks, which will be held in 2028.
Countries managed to sign off on all the major negotiation texts, marking a stark contrast to COP16, which ran so far over time that the Colombian presidency lost “quorum”, forcing talks to resume in Rome months later.
Below, Carbon Brief has detailed analysis of all of the key outcomes from COP17.
Formal negotiations
Finance
Finance, predictably, was at the heart of the discord and deadlock at the Yerevan talks.
At COP17, discussions on finance had to achieve several outcomes.
The first part – to take stock of biodiversity finance mobilised so far to meet the nature deal’s goals – fell under the global review.
As the global report noted, developed countries failed to meet their commitments to raise “at least $20bn a year by 2025” for nature. Delegates pointed to falling aid levels and a sharp 27% decline in environmental funding for the 2026-30 period.
The second part was to agree on how to mobilise resources for the next four years, to meet the GBF’s goals and targets.
Calls to “broaden the contributor base” of who pays to protect nature – and whether that should include emerging economies – became the most fraught element of the talks.
Eventually, countries agreed on what Switzerland described as a “super, mega-delicate” text. It hinged on major “political compromises”, with “no major winner or loser”, according to Kenya.
Per the decision, countries that want to be included on a list of developed country donors can “signal interest” through bilateral, confidential consultations before COP18 and every alternate COP after.
Finally, countries also agreed on criteria to shape and resource a new, permanent financial mechanism to protect nature after 2030.
However, this did not immediately take the form of a new fund under the COP that biodiverse countries have demanded since 2022, deferring the mechanism’s institutional structure to COP18.
Resource mobilisation discussions at the GBF’s halfway mark were supposed to agree on how to close the “biodiversity finance gap” and to “increase resources from all sources” to “at least” $200bn per year by 2030, as set out in target 19 of the GBF.
The talks were largely dominated by a push, led by the JUSCANZ bloc of developed countries, to “broaden the contributor base”. This could see emerging economies, such as Qatar, China, Saudi Arabia and India, being added to the list of countries that pay to protect nature.
Article 20 of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) states that developed countries “shall provide new and additional financial resources” to developing countries to meet the costs of implementing measures to protect nature.