Denmark to host climate ministers' meeting next week

COPENHAGEN, Denmark

Denmark is set to host a high-level meeting of climate ministers in Copenhagen on March 20-21, authorities said on Monday.

“The Copenhagen Climate Ministerial will gather climate leaders and ministers from around the world to push for a climate action and an ambitious COP28. The meeting will focus on securing the implementation of the results of COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh while also setting the course ahead towards COP28 in the United Arab Emirates in December,” read a statement by the Danish Foreign Ministry.

The Copenhagen meeting will have been the first time since the 2022 UN Climate Change Conference, or more commonly known as COP27, in Egypt that climate ministers and prominent political figures will meet in person to discuss all central issues to the COP process and agendas for the next COP conference in the UAE.

“The current and incoming COP presidencies of Egypt and the UAE are hosting the meeting in the Danish capital together with Denmark,” the statement said.

Dan Jorgensen, the Danish minister for development cooperation and global climate policy, said that Denmark looks forward to hosting the Copenhagen Climate Ministerial together with Egypt and the UAE.

He reiterated that important steps were taken on adaptation and loss and damage at COP27, and leading on this progress, the international community now must deliver on their promises from the last COP conference in Sharm el-Sheikh by ensuring a renewed global focus on curbing emissions and keeping the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) alive.

Setting up a fund for loss and damage at the last COP27 was a major development as the international community finally committed to decades-long demands by vulnerable countries seeking damages from polluting nations through a loss and damage clause.

However, climate experts believe that there still remain huge voids in the document as it fails to address the payment mechanism and set a timeline for the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. The agenda also missed on how to keep the temperature below 1.5C, and how to align global financial flows with climate targets. The document did not mention that global emissions have to peak by 2025, barely three years from now.