Countries at the UN’s COP28 climate summit are hoping to secure an early agreement on a new fund to pay for climate-caused damage, reports Reuters. (A transitional committee reached a deal on the fund earlier this month, as Carbon Brief reported at the time.) Parties are aiming to “muster some political goodwill” before talks turn to more divisive topics, including the future of fossil fuels, the newswire continues. A deal on the first day of COP28 would “remove a long-running point of conflict from the conference agenda”, reports Politico. This would then allow delegates to focus talks on the “root cause of the carnage: the burning of fossil fuels”, the article adds. Securing a deal on the creation of an international fund to help communities rebuild from “climate-driven calamities”, would send a positive sign for a conference facing “headwinds from geopolitical upheaval, a bullish fossil fuel industry, and climate activists’ complaints that a major petro-state is hosting the gathering”, says Politico. Meanwhile, campaign group Development Finance International is pushing for a new comprehensive and deep debt cancellation as COP28 opens, to free up “much-needed investment in climate emergency adaptation”, reports the Guardian. Climate efforts are being hampered by the debt crisis, the article notes, adding: “the world’s poorest countries [are] paying more than 12 times as much to their creditors as they are spending on measures to tackle the impact of global heating”.

In talks leading up to COP28, the EU announced that it will push for an international tax on aviation fuels, reports the Financial Times. According to the paper, EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra has said that China, Zambia, Brazil and the Gulf nations are among those that expressed an interest in such a tax, which could  generate “a substantial amount of money” with a “relatively small sum” charged per flight. Big meat companies and lobby groups meanwhile are planning a large presence at COP28, to get a pro-meat message heard by policymakers, reports the Guardian. In documents seen by the Guardian and DeSmog, the meat industry says it is poised to “tell its story and tell it well” at the Dubai conference, the article adds. 

COP28 president-designate Sultan Al Jaber has denied that the United Arab Emirates is using its presidency of the talks to make oil and gas deals, reports BBC News. On Monday, BBC News reported that leaked briefing documents revealed plans by the country to discuss fossil fuel deals with 15 nations, the article continues. Speaking in Dubai, Jaber said he had never seen nor used the briefing documents obtained by the BBC and the non-profit Centre for Climate Reporting, reports the Financial Times. It quotes Al Jaber saying at a media briefing at the Dubai Expo City venue for the UN climate summit: “These allegations are false, not true, incorrect and not accurate. It is an attempt to undermine the work of the COP28 presidency.” Jaber’s selection as COP28 president has drawn criticism from climate activists who are concerned he will be unable to take a neutral stance, as he holds a number of senior government and business positions, including chief executive of state oil jant Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), reports Reuters. The UAE is a major oil producer and a leading member of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, the article notes. The Guardian quotes Jaber saying at the media briefing: “Do you think the UAE or myself need the COP or the COP presidency to go and establish better deals or commercial relationships? This country over the past 50 years has been built around its ability to build bridges and create relationships and partnerships.”

With COP28 getting underway in Dubai, Prof Piers Forster, interim chair of the UK’s Climate Change Committee writes in the Conversation about “how bad is climate change already” and what needs to be done to tackle it. The Guardian has a “jargonbuster”, explaining key terms likely to arise at COP28 including carbon offsetting, Kyoto protocol and NDCs.  Reuters explains what happens at COP, from the opening ceremony to the “race against the clock” to agree a final text. The Guardian questions what COP28 could achieve, highlighting that if the current growth in renewable energy continues, and if countries take action on cutting greenhouse gases such as methane, then 2024 could be the year in which global greenhouse gas emissions at last reach their peak. African Arguments asks what’s at stake for Africa at COP28, with a specific focus on the “global stocktake”. Another Guardian article explains why loss and damage funds are “key to climate justice” for developing countries at COP28. 

After a “hellish summer” of extreme weather, people must balance outrage and optimism as they head into the COP28 climate summit, former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres has urged, reports the Guardian. It quotes her saying: “We have to keep the outrage really high because we are so darn late.” Figueres pointed to weak policies that governments have set out to cut “planet-heating pollution”, and the $7tn that directly and indirectly subsidises fossil fuels, the paper adds. However, Figueres says there are reasons for optimism, the article continues, quoting her saying: “I do make a conscious choice every morning to say ‘yes, I know what all the bad news is’ – that’s easy to get because that just screams at you from whatever news feed you have – but also, what is positive that is going out there? What are the disruptive pieces that are real, strong evidence of the fact that this is changing?”

Separately, Reuters reports that the US will work with China to make the UN climate negotiations a success, according to US climate envoy John Kerry. Cooperation between the US and China, the world’s two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, is “crucial to securing consensus”, the article notes. It quotes Kerry saying of his meeting with Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua this month: “We have decided to actually work together to get a successful COP, to get a successful global stocktake.” Meanwhile, US vice president Kamala Harris is attending COP28, the White House has announced, reports Politico. She will join over the Friday and Saturday, when there will be a series of speeches from heads of state such as French president Emmanuel Macron, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and UK prime minister Rishi Sunak, it notes. Elsewhere, the Independent reports that Sunak is “facing fresh outrage from climate campaigners” after it emerged that he, King Charles and foreign secretary Lord David Cameron are each taking separate jets to COP28. 

India plans to add 17 gigawatts (GW) of new coal-based generation capacity in the next 16 months – “its fastest pace in recent years” – to avoid blackouts due to a “record rise” in power demand, reports Reuters. Of this, nearly 3GW will be added in the next four months, according to internal government documents seen by the newswire. It quotes two government officials who did not want to be named saying: “We have now modelled a stressed scenario factoring in a below-normal monsoon and a corresponding demand spike, such as we experienced in [August-October] this year.” It says they added that New Delhi “has begun a review of 38 coal plants whose construction has been held up for years” and that the government was gearing up to resolve “delays” around equipment and land acquisition. According to the story, India’s power minister RK Singh “urged private companies to set up fresh coal-based power generation capacity to meet night-time demand and assured them of financial assistance” for the first time in a decade. The expansion comes ahead of moves by France and the US to curb private investments in coal at COP28, the article notes.

At the same time, India’s mines ministry launched the country’s first critical mineral auction of 20 blocks out of an estimated 100 on Wednesday, according to another Reuters story. State-run miner Coal India and the National Thermal Power Corporation are eyeing lithium assets in Australia, with the acquisition of lithium blocks in Australia and Argentina expected to be announced “in a month or two”, the story says. Separately, the Hindu reports that of all power-producing Indian states, only two – Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh – have a higher share of low-carbon energy than fossil fuel generation. 

Separately, India’s G20 “sherpa” Amitabh Kant is quoted in Fortune India pointing to developed G7 countries that have “backtracked” on their climate commitments, including the UK, France, Japan and USA. 

A comment by the Centre for Science and Environment, outlining its expectations for COP28 in Down to Earth says: “Rather than pretend that they don’t exist, we could treat COP28 as an opportunity to scrutinise the wealthy polluters and their plans up close and ask questions.” It adds: “Why are you still expanding oil and gas production during a climate crisis, when you possess the means to switch to a zero-carbon energy system?”

The China pavilion at COP28 held its opening ceremony this morning, with speeches delivered by top climate policymakers. Ministry of ecology and environment head Huang Runqiu delivered a speech in which he said he hopes that COP28 will “fully respond to the demands of developing countries, encourage developed countries to show the necessary flexibility to reach a multilateral solution and send a positive signal to the international community to cooperate”, according to a transcript carried by official state news outlet China News. Climate envoy Xie Zhenhua also delivered remarks, another China News article reports, saying that China will “build a clean and beautiful world through pragmatic actions and South-South and North-South cooperation initiatives”. The outlet quotes him adding that the meeting of presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping in San Francisco “emphasised the importance of accelerating US-China efforts to address the climate crisis in this critical decade”, and that “we look forward to the establishment of a strengthened platform for cooperation after the global stocktake…so as to ensure that the multilateral process ‘governs by facts’ and moves steadily forward on the right track”. 

The South China Morning Post reports that negotiations “will be difficult”, quoting Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, as saying China will be “reluctant to commit to more than it has already”. The state-run newspaper China Daily carries an article by Erik Solheim, president of the Green Belt and Road Institute and former executive director of the UN Environment Programme, who writes that China is “leading” in the green transition and the world needs to work with China. Arab News carries an article by Ranvir Nayar, managing editor of the Media India Group, who writes that “while significant differences remain between the US and China…the fact that the two have already taken their positions at the negotiating tables ahead of the Dubai summit is perhaps the best news that has come out in the run up to COP28”. 

Elsewhere, Reuters says that the UK’s investment minister Dominic Johnson on Monday said he was working to “attract Chinese car manufacturers to build a factory” in the UK, adding that China’s investment is “crucial” for meeting the country’s net-zero target. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Biden administration is “expected to release tax-credit rules” on Friday that could mean automakers “won’t be able to claim the credit if they purchase cars containing battery materials from a ‘foreign entity of concern’” such as China. It says this could disqualify manufacturers “with even minor contributions from Chinese firms”, including EU electric vehicle (EV) makers. The New York Times also covers the decision, adding: “[US lawmakers] left it up to the Biden administration to fill in the details, including important questions like what constitutes a Chinese company, and what product qualifies as a ‘battery component’.”

UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt should scrap the pension “triple lock” to pay for net-zero policies, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has said, reports the Daily Telegraph. As high interest rates erode public spending, the government should look for ways to free up money and reduce the UK’s debt pile by “scrapping costly policies” such as the state pension triple lock, the Paris-based organisation has suggested, the article continues. The triple lock means the state pension rises by the highest of inflation, average earnings, or 2.5%, meaning next year it is going up by 8.5%, from £10,600 to £11,502, matching wage growth, the paper notes. Campaigners and charities have said that it is vital to keep the triple lock, reports the Daily Mail. Additionally, an editorial in the Daily Mail decries the “pompous pronouncements” of the OECD and calls for it to “keep their noses out of our business”. A front-page article in the Daily Express says increasing state pensions in line with inflation will cost more than decarbonising power or covering the lost fuel duty revenue from the transition to electric vehicles. Nevertheless, the article says people have reacted with anger to the suggestion, telling the OECD to “keep out of this debate” and to “stick to issues they understand”. A comment piece in the Daily Telegraph from climate-sceptic columnist Matthew Lynn argues it is “time to scrap net-zero”, with the money instead used to give “our elderly the support they deserve”.

US president Joe Biden’s flagship climate law the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has “ushered the world into a new era of industrial policy”, reports the Financial Times as part of a special supplement in today’s edition called “Managing climate change”. IRA marked the “most significant legislative action the US has ever taken to reduce emissions”, the article notes, with $370bn in tax credits, grants and loans to rapidly decarbonise the US economy, while building out a domestic supply chain for clean technologies. For years, many African countries have “struggled to position themselves in relation to the climate debate raging in the global north”, says another article in the series. But the Nairobi Declaration, adopted by the 54 nations of the African Union in September, offers an opportunity to rally around a common position, it says. The series also includes comment pieces, such as an article from expedition yacht skipper Emily Caruso explaining how she is witnessing the effects of climate change on communities in the Pacific and Arctic. 

An editorial from the Financial Times highlights the “intense pressure” the UAE is under to produce a successful COP28, following the controversy of appointing the CEO of an oil and gas company as president-designate of the climate summit. COP28 is taking place against an “inauspicious” backdrop, the article says, explaining: “war blights the Middle East and Europe, the global economy is still scarred by the pandemic and a cost of living crisis, and voters have just delivered a surge of support to climate sceptics, from the Netherlands to Argentina”. The editorial says one potential upside of having Sultan Al Jaber as president-designate, despite accusations the UAE was using this as a “cheque book COP” to boost sales of oil and gas, is that it has thrown the actions of oil and gas companies into the spotlight. Al Jaber has insisted that a significant number of global oil and gas companies are now ready to align with net-zero targets, it notes, adding: “whether these companies do indeed come out with detailed blueprints on how they intend to reduce their production and transmission emissions, and scale up clean energy investments, will be a test of whether COP28 can achieve something, despite the controversy that has surrounded it”. 

An editorial in the Independent similarly challenges the criticism of holding COP28 in a petrostate, arguing it should be seen as a positive “reminder that net-zero is no longer the sole concern of the West – and that catastrophe can still be averted in the age of ‘global boiling’”. In the Guardian, deputy chair of the global human rights organisation the Elders Graça Machel and eighth secretary general of the UN Ban Ki-moon call on leaders to not “squander” the opportunity presented by COP28. They write: “Humanity is at a crucial juncture; we must not squander this chance to get back on track. At COP28, leaders must meet opportunity with collective will and fulfil the commitments that have, until now, remained unmet.” Another comment piece in the Guardian by columnist George Monbiot questions why billionaires are “blocking action to save the planet”. He says: “It’s obscene that the super-rich can criminalise protest, while they burn the world’s resources and remain untouched by the law.” An editorial in the Sun, meanwhile, critiques UK prime minister Rishi Sunak, foreign minister David Cameron and King Charles for taking three separate jets to travel to COP28. It says: “As the annual gathering of hypocritical hand-wringing heads to Dubai this weekend, surely the queue for the runway was long enough already?”

In a column for the Daily Telegraph, India’s prime minister Narendra Modi highlights the outcomes from his country’s G20 presidency, including “a recognition of the quantum jump needed in the magnitude of development financing, moving from billions to trillions of dollars” and that “developing countries require $5.9tn to fulfil their nationally determined contributions by 2030”. He says India amplified the voice of the global south, fought for women’s rights and championed development during its time as president of the G20. Marking 365 days since India took on the role, Modi says the four words that defined its presidency are “inclusive, ambitious, action-oriented, and decisive”. The New Delhi Declaration embodies a “renewed spirit of collaboration across these key priorities” and it is a “matter of pride” that during the presidency the G20 achieved 87 outcomes and 118 adopted documents, he writes. Modi concludes: “As we hand over the G20 presidency to Brazil, we do so with the conviction that our collective steps for people, planet, peace, and prosperity will resonate for years to come.”

There is “little trade-off” between alleviating extreme poverty and limiting global warming, a new study suggests. Using the international poverty line of US $2.15 per day, the authors estimate the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the economic growth needed to alleviate extreme poverty. Even with historical energy- and carbon-intensity patterns, the increase in emissions would be “modest”, the study finds, “at 2.37bn tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year or 4.9% of 2019 global emissions”. Lower inequality, higher energy efficiency and decarbonisation of energy could reduce this increase by as much as 90%, the authors note. The research “dispel[s] the idea that efforts to combat climate change and poverty are incompatible”, says an accompanying News & Views article.

A record-breaking compound extreme weather event that brought flooding and unprecedented seasonal heat to China in the summer of 2020 was made more intense by human-caused climate change, a new study finds. The researchers conduct a “storyline” attribution analysis by “designing simulation experiments via a weather forecast model, quantifying component-based attributable changes, and comparing with historical flow analogues”. The findings suggest that climate change has exacerbated the extreme summer monsoon rainfall “in the mid-lower reaches of the Yangtze River during June-July 2020 by ~6.5% and warmed the co-occurring seasonal extreme heat in south China by ~1C”. By the end of the century under moderate emissions, an equivalent event could see around 14% more rainfall and around 2.1C higher temperatures, the study adds.