Challenges due to climate change to be discussed at World Government Summit in Dubai

DUBAI: Climate change and its impact on the efforts made by the world governments to achieve their sustainable development goals (SDGs) will be among the key topics to be discussed at the World Government Summit (WGS) 2019 here this month.


The Climate Change Forum is part of the WGS and is taking place from February 10-12.


Aiming to identify solutions to counter the challenges posed by climate change, the summit will bring together decision makers, international organisations, senior government officials, business and thought leaders and media personalities from across the world.

The participants will work towards identifying creative solutions to combat the human and environmental impact of climate change and also discuss ways of ensuring compliance with the Paris Climate Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

"Discussing critical issues that face humanity such as Climate Change at WGS reflects the UAE's stance on the importance of a collective dialogue on the topic as well as supporting international efforts and encouraging new radical solutions to tackle climate change," Thani bin Ahmed Al-Zeyoudi, UAE's minister of climate change and environment, said.

He said that his ministry works with all partners to preserve the environment and ensure sustainability of resources, which is in line with the UAE's commitment to protecting and preserving the nature and environment.

Earlier this year, UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres announced that the UAE will host the preparatory conference of the UN 2019 Climate summit in Abu Dhabi in June this year.

The preparatory meeting for the Climate Summit aims to prepare an agenda, recommendations and draft resolutions to be presented and adopted during the United Nations Climate Summit in September.

The meeting will witness the highest international participation in terms of official representation of countries, the private sector and civil society organisations since the Paris Agreement 2015.

The Forum will discuss topics such as Climate Change and its Impact on Human Health, Climate Change and Biodiversity Health among others.

The Paris Agreement's central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.