Raised ambition needed at global climate conference COP28

Charlotte Owen
, 29 November 2023
Raised ambition needed at global climate conference COP28
Adonis Blue butterflies © Nigel Symington

The Wildlife Trusts believe the UK Government must raise ambition on emissions reductions, nature recovery and climate adaptation at COP28.

It's likely that 2023 will be the hottest year in history, following the warmest June, July, August, September, and October on record globally. Hundreds of people and millions of animals have perished in wildfires, floods, and heatwaves on land and at sea.

As COP28 gets underway, The Wildlife Trusts have three priorities for negotiators representing the United Kingdom in Dubai:

  1. Faster action to reduce emissions. Climate change poses monumental threats to communities and the natural world. Lack of progress to reduce emissions means the goal from the 2015 Paris Agreement to stop global temperature increasing by more than 2 degrees hangs in the balance. COP28 must catalyse greater action to phase out fossil fuel use globally, including in the UK. This is a code red+ for humanity and our natural world.
  2. Put nature recovery centre stage. The UK was visible and vocal at the Montreal UN biodiversity negotiations in December 2022. We want to see the same level of ambition for nature recovery brought to the table in Dubai. Nature recovery and food production must be viewed through the same lens and all parties should pledge to increase high-quality nature-based solutions for climate mitigation and adaptation, including in the UK.
  3. Champion global goals on adaptation and the loss and damage fund. Last year, COP27 promised support for developing countries through a ‘loss and damage’ fund. We expect details on the size and structure of the fund at COP28. There must also be significant progress on climate adaptation, an area where the UK has been consistently weak. The UK Government’s latest National Adaptation Programme, published in June, does not go far enough to help the country prepare for climate change and is now subject to a legal challenge.

Kathryn Brown, director of climate change and evidence for The Wildlife Trusts, says:

“The current UK Government is trying to make a wedge issue out of climate action, net zero and nature recovery ahead of next year’s election. Nothing illustrates this more than when the Prime Minister announced in September he’d scrap environmental policies that never existed in the first place. The UK has lost its place as a global leader on climate change – both on net zero and adapting to the impacts we can see accelerating around us.
“Alarmingly, climate action has been consistently absent from Rishi Sunak’s list of priorities. The UK Government needs to step-up as a matter of urgency. It's vital that it recognises the role of nature in addressing climate change because restoring habitats will go a long way to store carbon and address biodiversity loss in our nature-depleted country – The Wildlife Trusts are ready and waiting to work with them on this. Revitalising wild places will also provide a welcome boost to wellbeing in communities.”

Climate change poses a risk to all of us. We assessed the risks that climate change poses across our nature reserves in Changing Nature. We are working to make The Wildlife Trusts more resilient to climate change and to help nature adapt. Our report, Let Nature Help shows the value of nature in tackling climate change.

The climate crisis can feel overwhelming, so we've created some simple resources to explain what the situation is like today - and the hope we feel for the future, if we act now.

COP 28 is the United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from 30 November until 12 December 2023.

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