COP28 kicks off in Dubai, promising two weeks of fierce negotiations over fossil fuel phaseout

Representatives from nearly 200 countries have gathered for a fortnight of negotiations chaired by the United Arab Emirates.

Transcript

00:00 Sami Shoukri, the president of last year's United Nations climate change conference,

00:05 announcing the opening of COP28 in Dubai, where UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres

00:11 is expected to deliver an urgent appeal. In an interview with AFP, Guterres said the time

00:17 for slowing down is over.

00:20 The only thing that is still lacking is political will. And I mean, this is why the COP is important,

00:28 to make people understand that we are really moving in a very wrong direction still. We

00:35 are heading, if nothing happens, to three degrees, and three degrees would be a total

00:40 disaster.

00:41 Earlier this week, Guterres joined the annual UN and African Union conference in New York.

00:46 He stressed the two bodies must work together on African-led solutions for African problems.

00:51 For that, for instance, we need to have a massive support to Africa. There is an absurdity.

00:57 Africa has 60% of the solar capacity, and Africa has 2% of solar investment. So we need

01:04 to create a global solar alliance for Africa.

01:08 Back in the Arab Emirate, activists gathered in support of vegan food policies. According

01:13 to researchers, people who follow a plant-based diet generate 75% less greenhouse gas emissions

01:19 a day than their meat-eating counterparts.

01:22 [SWOOSH]