KSA Hosts MENA Climate Week
Crucial Climate Event Enters its Second Day in Saudi Arabia as COP28 Build-up Continues
KSA's government will host a week-long climate event in the capital city of Riyadh starting Sunday in collaboration with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The event will bring together policymakers, private sector firms, youth campaigners, and other key stakeholders in the climate change and sustainability sphere.
The ‘MENA Climate Week’ is being held ahead of the UN climate conference COP28 in Dubai from late November. The Saudi event comes at a crucial time when a majority of the countries have identified climbing temperatures as a problem and have since promised to take measures to curb the effects of global warming to a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius between 2030 and 2050.
“The goal of the week is to address the complexities, challenges, and opportunities of climate change, collectively offering views that will ultimately be considered as part of the climate ‘stocktake’ at COP28 in November,” according to a Saudi Ministry of Energy statement.
The talks in Riyadh are being organised by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Leaders around the world are under increasing pressure to act decisively in the face of the escalating climate emergency.
September 2023 was the warmest for the month on record globally, with an average surface air temperature of 16.38°C, figures compiled by the EU show.
It comes as a series of alarming reports, such as the UN’s this week that stated the world was “way off track” to meet the goals of the 2015 Paris Deal, has put further pressure on leaders to act.
Efforts to keep the goal alive will be assessed for the first time at Cop28 under the “global stocktake”.
The event in Saudi Arabia will reflect on regional work done to keep the 1.5°C goal alive.