‘It’s become too big’ — UNDP chief raises concerns over number of COP28 participants

Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has raised concerns over the number of participants at the 28th session of the climate change conference of the parties (COP28).

COP28 is currently taking place in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with over 97,000 participants. It is expected to end on December 12.

In an interview on Monday in Dubai, Steiner expressed concerns over the rising number of participants at successive conferences.

He said while he would not hinder anyone from participating, it could become even more difficult to find host countries to accommodate around 100,000 people and provide a conference site for them.

“I personally believe that these conferences have become too big,’’ NAN quoted Steiner as saying.

“And if a country like the United Arab Emirates has the opportunity to organise such a large conference, then I don’t think that’s our biggest problem.”

On fossil fuel, Steiner said the world understands and knows that the decarbonisation of our economies has become unavoidable.

“It will be very important to see whether this conference ultimately manages to recognise that the age of fossil fuels is over,” he added.

“But ultimately it’s about recognising that the future of our energy and transport systems will no longer be based on fossil fuels.”

NIGERIA HAS 1411 DELEGATES

According to the UN climate change secretariat, about 97,372 people registered to participate at COP28, including around 52,000 state delegates and about 4,000 journalists.

This makes the conference almost twice as large as its predecessor in Egypt which had over 50,000 participants.

TheCable had reported that Nigeria has the highest number of registered delegates from Africa at the conference.

According to a list published by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Nigeria is also third-highest overall in number of delegates at the conference.

The UAE accounted for the largest-ever registered delegation of any country, with 4,409 badges, followed by Brazil with 3,081.

Nigeria and China are joint third with 1,411 badges each.