On the eve of the 28e United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP28) hosted by the United Arab Emirates on Thursday, nature is felt in the host country. For the first time in history, Dubai found itself flooded due to heavy rains which caused disruptions in the streets, transport, beaches, generally hampering travel.
Indeed, it should be noted that 80% of the impacts of global warming are reflected in the water cycle, causing floods where they have never existed before, generating droughts in other parts of the planet, increasing sea levels due to melting ice and causing large-scale hurricanes.
It is worth recalling that the host country is the seventh largest oil producing country and that the conference will be chaired by a UAE Minister of Industry and Commerce who is also the CEO of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, the host country of the conference will have to take up the major challenge of establishing a consensus between the different actors around mitigation objectives, and in particular the respect of global commitments aimed at limiting, by 2030, increasing the average temperature to 1.5°C and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by half, while ensuring energy security.
One of the main debates at COP28 will be around the Global Adaptation Goal (GAO), formulated by Article 7.1 of the Paris Agreement, aimed at guiding efforts and improving adaptation capacity , as well as building resilience and reducing vulnerability to climate change. Indeed, the desired outcome of this COP28 is to mark the first conclusion of the OMA’s annual global review. Essential for local communities (cities, municipalities and indigenous peoples), achieving this objective is also closely linked to recognition of the diversity of challenges that populations will face in several regions of the world.
In this regard, one of the priorities of COP28 is to put nature, as well as people, life and livelihoods back at the center of decisions, a major change of course involving a real paradigm shift.
Ecocentrism will perhaps find an echo in this momentum at the major international conference during which the International Observatory for the Rights of Nature (OIDN) will organize an event at the Canada pavilion aiming to innovatively advance actions conferences on climate change, with the theme “Preserving the Arabian Sea and the St. Lawrence River through their legal personalities”.
The cross-cutting impacts of climate on rivers, seas and waters in general are tangible, as evidenced by the latest reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This cross-dialogue on the threats facing the St. Lawrence River and the Arabian Sea aims to find innovative, nature-based legal solutions to address drinking water shortages, food security, and drought. and the decline of marine life in these two ecosystems.
The event will demonstrate how the holistic approach to recognizing the legal personality of natural elements can contribute to the objectives of the Paris Agreement and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. It is also part of a process of reconciliation with the indigenous peoples of Quebec, Canada and the world: there can be no preservation of waterways without the involvement and presence, at the negotiating table, of of those who have known the territory for millennia.
The international community of States as a whole owes a historic debt to these peoples. It is therefore important that their voices are heard at COP28. The OIDN joined forces with the Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador, the Innu community of Ekuanitshit and parliamentarians to promote an innovative model of integrated territorial protection based on the rights of nature. It is therefore hand in hand with these people from different regions that COP28 is truly inclusive.
The role of indigenous peoples, as well as local communities, women and youth, who are underrepresented, must be valued if we want to talk about real climate justice. Even if it makes it possible to achieve a timetable and objectives, any energy transition project without social acceptability cannot be equitable without such acceptability and the consent of indigenous peoples. The United Nations (UN) has also insisted on the fact that the response to these crises requires the involvement of indigenous peoples, who it should be remembered that they manage approximately 22% of the planet’s land on which nearly 80% of biodiversity is found.
The protection of nature as a true living environment is ultimately our best ally in the fight against climate change. It is by promoting nature protection measures that we will be able to combat the crisis of biodiversity loss and ensure food security and the preservation of drinking water at the same time. This will promote the conservation of life on our planet, which will ultimately ensure our own survival and sustenance.