COP28 President says conference going to be historic

Reading Time: 2 minutes

The United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP28, has got under way in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The President of COP28, Sultan Al Jaber, says countries must double their efforts to reduce greenhouse emissions.

Many developing countries are struggling to access financial resources to meet their targets. Al-Jaber says this conference will make history in many fronts.

“History reflect the facts that this is the Presidency that made a bold choice to proactively engage with oil and gas companies. We had many hard discussions. Let me tell you that wasn’t easy but today many of these companies are committing for zero emissions by 2030 for first time.”

Meanwhile, The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has committed to put more funds into a trust that aims to alleviate the effects of climate change.

Speaking to the SABC during the official opening of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, IMF Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva says developing nations are included in this trust. She says billions of dollars have been budgeted for specifically for this initiative.

“From the IMF we are committed to bring the 40 billion dollars in resilient and sustainability trust. Eleven programmes are already in place, six of them in Africa.”