Climate mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage control will be in focus throughout COP28. Clean technologies, climate finance opportunities, and systems change will be key for investors and companies. Moving forward, they can expect more policy support – but also more policy dilemmas
COP déjà vu?
Do you remember the first COP meeting held in Berlin in 1995? We don’t, so we won’t blame you either. We definitely remember the epic 2015 meeting, however, when the Paris Climate Agreement was signed. It was this meeting that put climate change on the agenda of corporate decision-makers and investors. So, what can they find out from this year’s meeting in Dubai?
COP28 puts the climate challenge in the spotlight once again
The fight against climate change consists of three pillars. Climate mitigation, or bending the global emissions curve towards net zero emissions by 2050, is the first pillar and first priority as global warming continues as long as the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases. So, mitigation policies to reach the Paris Climate Goals will be a central theme for this year's COP as a warning against insufficient ambition and a call to close the cap.
Climate change adaptation
Adaptation to climate change is the second pillar and is all about minimising climate costs from extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, storms and tropical cyclones. Countries in the global south are expected to be severely impacted, and the 2023 UN Climate Adaption Report expects adaptation costs for developing countries to be around $400bn per year up to 2030.
Even if these mitigation and adaptation policies get financed and are able to materialise, the world will experience loss and damage from climate change – which for developing countries are of equal size as the adaptation costs. So, addressing the loss and damage from climate change is the third pillar of the fight against climate change.
For all the latest details from our team on what COP28 could bring for investors and companies, catch the full report here.