Jump to navigation

Vol 64 No 25

Published 14th December 2023

The 28th UN Conference of the Parties Climate Summit – a users' guide

PREVIEW

How to navigate the facts, the figures and the declarations | By Tim Concannon and Jerry Sam in Accra and Caroline Chebet in Nairobi

The UN's COP summits are a marathon – even by the standards of other international summits organised by the UN, the IMF and sundry regional organisations.

This year's summit – COP28 in Dubai – is already an epic in terms of the over 90,000 people that have registered as delegates.

It opened on 30 November and is due to run until at least midnight on 16 December when the hosts, the United Arab Emirates, will release the final communiqué and roster of financial pledges and declarations of policy actions from the nearly 200 nations participating.

This dossier offers a point by point guide to the key issues under discussion – from the debate over the Loss and Damage Fund and the need for a global carbon tax to whether the final declaration will include an agreement to 'phase-down'  (as the hydrocarbon economies want) or 'phase out' (as the climate activists want) of fossil fuel production.

For a detailed guide to the facts, the figures and the declarations, read our Special Report here: The 28th UN Conference of the Parties Climate Summit – a users' guide

Copyright © Africa Confidential 2026
https://www.africa-confidential.com

Prepared for Free Article on 20/05/2026 at 13:43. Authorized users may download, save, and print articles for their own use, but may not further disseminate these articles in their electronic form without express written permission from Africa Confidential / Asempa Limited. Contact subscriptions@africa-confidential.com.

Related Articles

High stakes but low ambitions at Baku’s geopolitical climate summit

Africa’s bargaining chips at COP29 are ‘green ores’, and trading its forests, grasslands and shorelines as carbon sinks

After a year of weather disasters and the hottest average temperatures on record, cash will dominate negotiations at the UN Conference of the Parties (COP29) climate summit from...

Warming up in Cape Town

African governments are teaming up with Asia and Latin America to press rich countries for a legally binding pact on carbon emissions

In a challenge to the rich economies of the West, South Africa, Brazil, China and India are calling for a legally binding global agreement to limit climate change....

Back to the scene of the crime

A plan to restart oil production in Ogoniland amid a failing environmental clean-up risks repeating all the mistakes of 25 years ago

This week lawyers for the 40,000 people in the Ogale and Bille communities in the Niger Delta have been pressing their case in London's Supreme Court to hold...

READ FOR FREE

Brussels backs down on forest laws again

The EU’s anti-deforestation laws show how badly drafted climate policy can alienate everyone – farmers, traders and consumers

Chaos surrounds the European Union’s anti-deforestation regulation. Following a series of U-turns and carve outs, the law will not affect African farmers until June 2026, 18 months later...


Stories by country

Footer Map