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Global leaders from nearly 200 nations convened in Dubai for a two-week United Nations climate summit, following the hottest year on record. Their mission was to tackle the climate crisis head-on and seek solutions. The urgency for action has never been more palpable, and the delegates accomplished a historic feat by acknowledging the beginning of the end for fossil fuels. Although the COP 29 summit brought about a significant change in the global perspective, the policy inadequacies and unreliable implementation have shown that we cannot depend on international policy alone.

The 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, aka COP28, is this year’s meeting of global leaders to discuss climate policy. Representatives from nearly 200 countries meet annually to discuss how to slow human-made global warming and adapt to the challenges of rising temperatures and climate change. The 2015 Paris conference led to the historic Paris Agreement, where countries pledged to limit global warming by 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The summit’s optimistic goal of 1.5 degrees stands as the benchmark of climate policy for nations and corporations worldwide.

However, not every COP is productive, and this year’s setting and guest list raised skepticism from the start. Held in Dubai, this year’s conference welcomed four times more fossil fuel lobbyists than last year’s. The nearly 2,500 representatives of fossil fuel interests outnumbered the delegations from every country except two: the host countries for this year (UAE) and next year (Brazil).

The climate crisis is here, and we face an unprecedented urgency for immediate and significant measures to curb emissions, clean our atmosphere, and adapt civilization for a changing climate. While human-caused climate change is virtually undeniable, there used to be sufficient room to challenge the speed and scale of doomsday projections. However, the past few years have demonstrated that things are worsening faster than scientists predicted.

Averaging 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and breaking 2 degrees for two days, 2023 was named the hottest year ever with a month to go. Sea temperatures broke records, and Antarctica’s sea ice melted to new lows. While cyclical patterns like El Nino deserve some of the blame for the early threshold crossing, the severity of warming has scientists highly concerned. Rising temperatures have exacerbated extreme weather patterns, leading to catastrophic droughts, floods, storms, and wildfires with dangerous emissions compounding effects.

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