SimplyAbuDhabi XLIII

I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to His Highness Sheik Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan for his warm invitation to speak to you at the opening of COP28. Eight years ago, I was most touched to be asked to speak at the opening of COP21 in Paris, which of course culminated in the Paris Agreement; a landmark moment of hope and optimism, when nations put differences to one side for the common good. I pray with all my heart that COP28 will be another critical turning point towards genuine transformational action at a time when, already, as scientists have been warning for so long, we are seeing alarming tipping points being reached. I have spent a large proportion of my life trying to warn of the existential threats facing us over global warming, climate change and biodiversity loss. But I was not alone. For instance, Sheikh Mohamed ’s dear father, Sheikh Zayed, was advocating for clean energy at a time even before the United Arab Emirates, as such, came into being. All these decades later, and despite all the attention, there is thirty per cent more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere now than there was back then, and almost forty per cent more methane. Some important progress has been made, but it worries me greatly that we remain so dreadfully far off track as the Global Stocktake report demonstrates so graphically. The dangers are no longer distant risks. I have seen across the Commonwealth, and beyond, countless communities which are unable to withstand repeated shocks, whose lives and livelihoods are laid waste by climate change. Surely real action is required to stem the growing toll of its most vulnerable victims? Repeatedcyclones batter vulnerable islandnations, likeVanuatuand Dominica. India, Bangladesh and Pakistan have been experiencing unprecedented floods, and East Africa is suffering a decades-long drought. This past summer, in common with Spain, Greece, the United States and many other countries, Canada experienced its most severe wildfire season on record, with eighteen-and- a-half million hectares of land burned, causing terrible loss of life and property and, of course, releasing enormous amounts of greenhouse gasses that contribute to dangerous “feedback loops”, to which climate scientists have been alerting us for decades. As I have tried to say on many occasions, unless we rapidly repair and restore Nature’s unique economy, based on harmony and balance, which is our ultimate sustainer, our own economy and survivability will be imperilled. Records are now being broken so often that we are perhaps becoming immune to what they are really telling us. When we see the news that this last Northern Hemisphere Summer, for instance, was the warmest global average temperature on record, we need to pause to process what this actually means: we are taking the natural world outside balanced norms and limits, and into dangerous, uncharted territory. We are carrying out a vast, frightening experiment of changing every ecological condition, all at once, at a pace that far outstrips Nature’s ability to cope. As we work towards a zero-carbon future, we must work equally towards being Nature-positive. With what we are witnessing, our choice now is a starker – and darker – one: how dangerous are we actually prepared to make our world? Dealing with this is a job for us all. Change will come by working together and making it easier to embrace decisions that will sustain our world, rather than carry on as though there are no limits – or as though our actions have no consequences. His Majesty’s opening remarks at the UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai, 2023 King Charles III at COP28 Secretary General, Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Presidents, Prime Ministers, Ministers, Ladies and Gentlemen. Simply Abu Dhabi | 167