Media/Press

The COP28 climate summit in Dubai has adjourned. The result is “The UAE consensus” on fossil fuels. 

Alaa Al Khourdajie, Chris Bataille and Lars J Nilsson explain how COP28 missed the chance to set a firm, scientifically-backed benchmark for future fossil fuel use.

Our capacity development workshops were featured in an editorial of Africa.com, aiming to contribute to ongoing debates on climate change mitigation and adaptation in the country, and hopefully creating long-lasting spaces for co-creation of modelling assessments and sharing of knowledge.

A research project aiming to support the assessment of global climate goals, among others, is hosting a four-day modelling workshop in Mombasa, Kenya. Under the auspices of Horizon Europe, the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation, the IAM COMPACT project is travelling to developing countries.

Evidently, ever since the COP26 Glasgow process, the most relevant factor to avoid a climate disaster is to secure the implementation of the existing country pledges.

What have we achieved in the 7+ years after the Paris Agreement was adopted? Project Coordinator, Prof. Haris Doukas, reports on the findings of our study, van de Ven et al., 2023, in Nature Climate Change.

At COP26 in Glasgow, major emitters significantly ratcheted up their climate commitments. Such increased ambition will substantially contribute to getting closer to the long-term goal of the Paris Agreement but more ambition is required, and mitigation might face different challenges in different regions. Silvia Pianta & Elina Brutschin discuss the findings of van de Ven, DJ., Mittal, S., Gambhir, A. et al. A multimodel analysis of post-Glasgow climate targets and feasibility challenges. Nat. Clim. Chang. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01661-0

"The main takeaway of this research is definitely positive," said Dirk-Jan van de Ven, the lead author on the report and a postdoctoral researcher at BC3 in Spain. "If all governments indeed follow the promises actually made, then we are actually keeping temperatures well below 2°C."

Sam Ezra Fraser-Baxter writes in the Imperial College London blog about the findings of our study in Nature Climate Change, van de Ven et al., 2023.

The realism of long-term national climate pledges is strictly evaluated on the basis of finding plausible and feasible roadmaps towards these targets—why shouldn't the same principle apply for corporate pledges? The emerging ESG market can set monitoring protocols and processes for missed targets, so that transparency and reliability can be ensured, writes Prof. Haris Doukas (in Greek).

European industries have been severely affected by the energy crisis and are at a disadvantage against global competitors. To face the upcoming years, they will need strong support at the European and national levels, write Haris Doukas and Vlasios Oikonomou.