Delegates arrive at the venue of the COP28 United Nations climate summit in Dubai on November 30, 2023. (PHOTO: VCG)

Edited by TANG Zhexiao

With a resounding call to accelerate collective climate action, the 28th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC) kicked off on November 30 in Dubai.

COP28 marks the conclusion of the "Global Stocktake," the first assessment of global progress in implementing the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Countries already know what the global stocktake will say: they are not on track, BBC reported in September. The world is not on track to limit a temperature rise to 1.5°C by the end of this century.

The stocktake does recognize that countries are developing plans for a net-zero future, and the shift to clean energy is gathering speed, but it makes clear that the transition is nowhere near fast enough yet to limit warming, said UNFCCC.

Actions to address climate change cannot wait. "We don’t have any time to waste," said COP28 President Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, adding that We need to take urgent action now to reduce emissions. At COP28, every country and every company will be held to account, guided by keeping 1.5°C within reach.

United Arab Emirates (UAE) has the presidency for COP28. On the eve of COP28, construction of the China-built Al Dhafra PV2 Solar Power Plant in the UAE was fully complete. As the world's largest single-site solar power plant and an important project of Belt and Road cooperation in green energy, it covers an area of 20 square kilometers of desert area with more than four million photovoltaic (PV) modules. At its full designed capacity, the plant can supply power for 200,000 households, and reduce 2.4 million tonnes of carbon emissions per year, according to officials.

China is a doer in advancing global climate governance, said Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin, "We have not only built the world’s largest clean power generation network, but also provided support and assistance in this regard to other developing countries to the best of our capability."

Aside from the UAE’s Al Dhafra PV2 Solar Power Plant, China has undertaken other clean energy projects, such as the Sachal wind power project in Pakistan, the Noor III solar-thermal power plant in Morocco, the Al Kharsaah PV power station in Qatar and the Garissa PV power plant in Kenya.

All these are vivid examples of China acting on the vision of green development, supporting the green and low-carbon construction and operation of infrastructure and enhancing international cooperation in climate response, said Wang.

China declared it would develop green and low-carbon energy and halt financing and construction of new coal-fired power plants overseas at the 2021 United Nations General Assembly. Two years later, research at the Green BRI Center in the International Institute of Green Finance showed that the proportion of renewables in China’s Belt and Road energy sector projects surpassed fossil fuels, and the country made no overseas coal power investments in 2021 and the first half of 2022.

Apart from clean energy transitions, China also achieved results in soil erosion, ecological restoration, as well as farmland construction. In the last two decades, China has moved from the back seat to the front seat on everything related to green development, according to Erik Solheim, former executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme.

As Al Jaber said, all parties should prepare to deliver a high-ambition decision in response to the global stocktake that reduces emissions while protecting people, lives, and livelihoods.