What else will be discussed at the UN climate conference in Dubai?

The traditional topic for the conference will be climate finance issues. In particular, we are talking about further replenishment of funds, the funds of which go to support emission reduction and adaptation in the countries of the Global South. They will also discuss the launch of a new special fund that will cover climate losses and damage to developing countries (for the next four years, this fund will work within the World Bank, and later as an independent fund within the UN).

The conference also plans to detail and adopt the Paris Agreement’s goal on adaptation to climate change. In Dubai, the first results of the Paris Agreement will be summed up and issues of supporting so-called nature-based solutions will be discussed (they preserve or restore natural solutions and lead to an increase in CO2 absorption at the same time). Also on the agenda are issues of sustainable urban development and low-carbon transformation of food systems.

In the Russian pavilion (its work is supported by the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, as well as a number of companies, including Nornickel, Metalloinvest, Severstal, SIBUR, Rosatom, Phosagro, ALROSA, Sberbank) the role of business in reducing emissions, topics Moscow’s urban climate agenda, nuclear energy, forest policy, issues of the relationship between climate and public health, the impact of climate change on indigenous peoples, peatland watering programs and other natural solutions in the Russian Federation, as well as the results of the latest scientific research in the field of climate.

Topics traditionally of interest to Russia include accounting for CO2 absorption by forests and other ecosystems, international promotion of nuclear energy technologies, as well as the opportunity for companies to sell carbon units on international markets or count the results of climate projects to reduce their carbon footprint. However, experts believe that in the current geopolitical conditions, interest in carbon units resulting from Russian climate projects is unlikely to be expected, including due to the military conflict in Ukraine and countries’ plans to concentrate on reducing emissions primarily on their territory . “This is a purely domestic Russian story, based on an incorrect assessment of the global carbon market and world demand for carbon units,” Mikhail Yulkin, an expert at the International Center for Sustainable Energy Development under the auspices of UNESCO and director of Carbonlab, told Kommersant.

Angelina Davydova