Good morning from Dubai! Before we kick off our coverage for today, here’s a summary of what you missed yesterday.
Pope Francis and the Grand Imam came together to call for urgent climate action. Though the Pope was too unwell to visit Dubai, a video message from him was played at the inauguration of the first-ever Faith Pavillion.
In another first, today was the first time there has been a dedicated day for health at a COP. Many have used the day to emphasise the undeniable link between health and climate change from heat causing tropical diseases to spread to the damage done by air pollution.
“Climate change doesn’t need to be on a death certificate for us to be confident that climate change is causing deaths,” Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum, WHO’s head of climate and health, said.
With peace also the theme of the day, there were a number of protests at the UN climate conference including a call for a ceasefire in Gaza. Protests are an unusual sight in the UAE and are only allowed inside the climate conference under very strict guidelines.
Countries also recognised the need to boost financial support for climate resilience in war-torn and fragile settings. Global peacebuilding charity International Alert says it is a big step in the right direction but conflict and climate change need to become a regular part of global climate talks.
And for today, the themes at COP28 today are finance, trade, gender equality and accountability.