Context: Recently, United Arab Emirates announced an offer to host the 28th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Abu Dhabi in 2023, with a focus on the economic case for inclusive climate action.

• COP 26 was postponed in 2020 and will take place in Glasgow, UK in November 2021.

As per UAE Highness

• UAE has established itself as a natural host for high-level large format international events focused on climate action and sustainable development.
• The climate challenge is daunting, but it is also matched by enormous opportunity to drive economic growth and job creation.
• UAE's investments in domestic renewable energy - including many of the world's largest solar projects - over the last 15 years have yielded the world's lowest solar costs. 
• The UAE's investments internationally have also contributed to renewable energy's dramatic cost reductions over the last decade, reshaping global energy markets.

Key Points
About UNFCCC

• The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), signed in 1992 at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development also known as the Earth Summit, the Rio Summit or the Rio Conference.
• India is among the select few countries to have hosted the COP of all three Rio conventions on climate change (UNFCCC), biodiversity (Convention on Biological Diversity) and land (United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification).
• The UNFCCC entered into force on 21st March 1994, and has been ratified by 197 countries.
• It is the parent treaty of the 2015 Paris Agreement. It is also the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
• The UNFCCC secretariat (UN Climate Change) is the United Nations entity tasked with supporting the global response to the threat of climate change. It is located in Bonn, Germany.

Objective

• To achieve stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous repercussions within a time frame so as to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally and enable sustainable development.

The Conference of the Parties (COP)

• COP is the apex decision-making authority of UNFCCC.
• The COP meets every year, unless the Parties decide otherwise. The first COP meeting was held in Berlin, Germany in March, 1995.
• The COP meets in Bonn, the seat of the secretariat, unless a Party offers to host the session.
• The office of the COP President normally rotates among the five United Nations regional groups which are - Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Central and Eastern Europe and Western Europe and Others.
• The President is usually the environment minister of his or her home country. S/he is elected by acclamation immediately after the opening of a COP session.

Road Ahead

• Climate impacts are already being acutely felt, but our experience gives us optimism that we can meet global climate goals, while creating social and economic opportunities - with contributions coming from all corners of the globe.