The United Arab Emirates has stated that it is determined to provide targets to cut the CO2 emissions resulting in climate change after an independent research group said the country, which will host the climate summit COP28 for this year, is far off track.
In an investigation published last week, research consortium Climate Action Tracker said that the UAE would miss its climate targets by a large margin if it went ahead with the plans to develop oil and gas production and use- and saw its CO2 emissions increase through to 2039, at odds with the sharp decrease needed to constrain climate change.
The Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, in a statement responding to the CAT analysis, said that” the UAE has recently updated its Nationally Determined Contributions and is entirely devoted to achieving its ambitious emissions targets.”
A Nationally Determined Contribution is the domestic target to slash CO2 emissions that each country sets under the Paris Agreement, as it is a contribution to restrain global warming.
However, the Ministry added that the UAE’s more ambitious emissions-cutting targets declared this month was a “substantial acceleration” of its path towards net zero emissions by 2050.
It also said the new goal is “bringing the UAE in compliance with the ambition and determination shown by many of our most progressive climate partners to keep 1.5C within reach”.
In its analysis, CAT said that the plan of the UAE to expand oil and gas production and consumption would smash the country’s climate targets – even if it developed clean energy sources at the same time – and we’re incompatible with limiting global warming to
1.5 C.
Moreover, according to scientists, the countries agreed under the Paris Agreement to restrain climate change to 1.5 Celsius above pre-industrial levels. This limit would avoid effects far more catastrophic than the deadly wildfires, heat, and foods ravaging countries worldwide today.
Moreover, the UAE’s new target is to slash emissions by 40 % by 2030 compared with where emissions would have stood under a
“business as usual ” scenario.
