An oil exec, a climate crisis, and reparations: what’s going down at the United Nations summit in Dubai

COP28 logo on the opening day of the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on November 30, 2023. | Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesWill there be a future for fossil fuels? How...

Kass Kass
Dec 1, 2023 - 21:01
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An oil exec, a climate crisis, and reparations: what’s going down at the United Nations summit in Dubai

World leaders will debate a possible phase-out of fossil fuels during a United Nations climate conference in Dubai from November 30th to December 12th. With an oil baron presiding over the summit, the negotiations are sure to get heated. Countries hardest hit by climate-fueled disasters, meanwhile, are pushing for reparations through a fund for “loss and damage” and more financing to help communities adapt to new extremes.

The stakes are high at the summit, dubbed COP28 because it’s the 28th “Conference of the Parties,” a meeting of 197 nations and territories that ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Whatever is decided in Dubai will have consequences for the whole world. The Verge is tracking how the negotiations play out; stay tuned.

Justine Calma

The future of fossil fuels could be decided in Dubai

Opening Day
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - NOVEMBER 30: COP28 President Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber during the opening day of the United Nations Climate Conference.

Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Tens of thousands of negotiators, activists, and corporate execs have descended upon Dubai to wrangle over the future of fossil fuels. Namely, should they even have a future? Can governments broker a deal to phase out the oil, coal, and gas causing climate change? Countries have already suffered deep losses as a result of the fires, floods, and other disasters intensifying with climate change. They want the biggest, heaviest-polluting nations to do something about it. And they’ll be making their case at a conference presided over by an oil baron.

Those are some of the hot topics on the table at the United Nations climate conference that kicks off in Dubai on November 30th. It’s called COP28, because it’s the 28th annual “Conference of the Parties” — made up of 197 nations and territories that ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. 

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