With the 2020 Paris climate agreement deadline looming ever closer, the United Arab Emirates pledged on Wednesday to host the next annual U.N. climate conference in 2023, beating the turn of Germany.
“The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development sets out a clear roadmap to achieve the U.N. 2030 Agenda and other global sustainable development goals through a comprehensive approach that is built on harmony with nature,” said Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice president and prime minister of the UAE, while at the 21st session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
“As nations lead the way towards this ambitious goal, a number of key countries, including Germany, have expressed a desire to host the next Conference of Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2023. We would like to congratulate them for their decision.”
Sheikh Mohammed is director of the Dubai Future Foundation, which is hosting Thursday’s meeting of top international officials from the U.N. climate panel. He told reporters that an agreement that would “put us on a sustainable path” could be reached before year’s end.
“We can have common understanding and common targets, common values as well as common way,” said Sheikh Mohammed. “And the way to do it is through technologies, through business, through entrepreneurs.”
Next year’s conference is scheduled to be held in Bonn, Germany. Germany says it is ready to host the event in 2023.
The U.N. summit that aims to strengthen global climate coordination and agreement is scheduled for November in Katowice, Poland. The same conference hosted by President Barack Obama last year produced a pact that took effect last month.
The treaty is called the Paris Agreement, in honor of the year 2005, when former French President Jacques Chirac first proposed a global deal to control greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming. The U.S. did not join the accord until last year.
This week’s conference in Dubai is being conducted in partnership with the German Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. Among the dignitaries expected to take part are German Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks, who said the participation of German scientists in research projects in the UAE had helped Europe and the world to understand the weather patterns and growing threats posed by global warming.
She said a study called “Continental Drift – Climate change and its impacts on the Arabian Peninsula,” which is being led by the Technical University of Munich in partnership with the UAE, had provided clear answers about the common and peculiarities of the two geographic regions and climate patterns.