Key events
Politico has reported on the shadow cast over Cop28 by the war in Gaza. Several leaders used their speeches to draw attention to the conflict, and behind the scenes officials are having meetings with their counterparts about Gaza.
Here’s a sample of Politico’s report:
Israeli president Isaac Herzog spent much of the morning in meetings telling fellow leaders about “how Hamas blatantly violates the ceasefire agreements,” according to a post on his X account. He ended up skipping a speech he was meant to give during Friday’s parade of world leaders.
There were other conspicuous no-shows. Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was absent, despite being listed as an early speaker. And Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority leader, also disappeared from the final speakers’ list after initially being scheduled to talk just a few slots after Herzog.
Then, shortly after leaders posed for a group photo in the Dubai venue on Friday, the Iranian delegation announced it was walking out. The reason, Iran’s energy minister told his country’s official news agency: The “political, biased and irrelevant presence of the fake Zionist regime” — referring to Israel.
Read the full piece here.
Welcome to day three of Cop28
Good morning! This is Alan Evans, bringing you coverage from the third day of the UN’s Cop28 climate summit.
The Guardian will be liveblogging the negotiations throughout. You can email me on alan.evans@theguardian.com or on X/Twitter at @itsalanevans, and my colleague Ajit Niranjan (ajit.niranjan@theguardian.com) will take over later on.
Today will see more world leaders take to the stage to give speeches. The hosts will hope some of them will use them to make pledges to the newly-agreed loss and damage fund, the creation of which has been the main talking point of the conference so far.
And here’s a summary of the main events yesterday:
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World leaders, particularly those from developing countries at the forefront of the climate crises, begged large economies and emitters to take urgent action both to reduce emissions and fund loss and damage
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UK prime minister Rishi Sunak declared to the conference that he had watered down climate policy in the UK, drawing anger from politicians and climate experts who said he had “misread the room”
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UK opposition leader Keir Starmer accused Sunak of “shrinking and retreating” from showcasing leadership on the global stage at Cop28 and over the climate crisis
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A new UN report found that droughts are a planetary emergency causing widespread famine, and that they are a silent, often ignored, killer
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Brazil’s president, Lula, outlined that it is not possible to tackle the climate crisis without also tackling inequality. He spoke of climate suffering in the Amazon, which is experiencing one of the “most tragic droughts in its history” while cyclones in the south of Brazil have left a trail “of destruction and death”.
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The UK’s King Charles III opened the conference, and warned in his speech that “unless we rapidly repair and restore nature’s economy, based on harmony and balance, which is our ultimate sustainer, our own economy and survivability will be imperilled.”
You can also read our daily news wrap from yesterday here:
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