In July, Belgian organizers released the daily scheduling for the upcoming 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference. Held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and with 70,000 participants, this year’s conference, known as COP28, will be one of the most important international meetings of the year with key international updates surrounding climate change and environmental action.
The two-week thematic program will cover issues affecting all industry sectors worldwide, but here are the topics and themes that will be most important for global mobility professionals.
The Effects of Climate Change
The effects of climate changes, including disrupted weather patterns, flooding, and record-breaking temperatures disrupt the operation of global trade routes and business travel and damages housing, transportation, and infrastructure.
Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, the COP28 president-designate and Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, said the “North Star" of the summit would be the Paris Agreement, the target to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Jaber also said that the summit’s plan consisted of four pillars: fast-tracking the energy transition, climate finance, focusing on people’s livelihoods affected by climate change, and inclusivity.
Making International Trade Green
COP28 will feature the first-ever “Trade Day" on 4 December that will focus on what an enforced supply chain decarbonization program could look like internationally. Organizations including the World Economic Forum, the World Trade Organization, the International Chamber of Commerce, and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development will be partnering with the UAE to create the day’s discussions and events.
This focus, if properly implemented, could not only start the spread of green technologies across developed and undeveloped nations but better proliferate manufacturing goods like solar panels and batteries, wind turbines, and electric cars that could be used to shrink countries’ carbon footprints considerably. As COP28 guidelines will help create national policies that affect energy usage and manufacturing, companies across global mobility will be affected.
The Ocean and Maritime Trade
The International Chamber of Shipping reports that the international shipping industry is responsible for the carriage of roughly 90% of world trade, covering the transportation of raw materials, affordable food supplies, and manufactured goods. But the industry is far from green. Greenhouse gas emissions have risen 20% in 10 years for the international maritime trade sector, making it responsible for 3% of total emissions worldwide. Without intervention, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development estimates that emissions could increase to 130% of their 2008 levels by 2050 thanks to an aging fleet of ships dependent on fossil fuels.
2022 was named the “super year of the ocean" with conferences held on the topic around the world, but 2023 will seek to expand on these and focus on how to decarbonize the maritime trade sector quickly and effectively. The COP28 Ocean Pavilion will have three tracks focused on the changing ocean, climate consequences, and the future of the ocean. With the global mobility industry, like many others, reliant on international shipping, COP28’s goal to increase ocean resiliency and decarbonize maritime trade and maritime trade’s supply chain will be incredibly important for dictating future trends and infrastructure changes.