One after the other, they took to the podium to set out their ambitions and expectations. While an initial working document for a final agreement has begun to be negotiated, some of the 160 or so heads of state and government gathered for the 28^th World Climate Conference (COP28) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, took the floor on Friday, December 1, to call for action. The decisions made between now and December 12 will reveal whether these speeches have been transformed into concrete commitments.

The world's leaders are in unison on this point and have recognized the extent to which their policies are not putting the world on the right trajectory to limit global warming to 1.5°C. "Humanity is hurtling toward the abyss. How many more COPs do we need to avoid it? Every five seconds, one person dies from pollution," said Slovakia's president, Zuzana Caputova – one of the few women present among the heads of state.

Brazilian President Lula da Silva, whose speech was eagerly awaited, reiterated his goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 and ending deforestation by 2030. "Our commitments are far more ambitious than those of countries that have been polluting the atmosphere since the beginning of industrialization," he said, pointing out that it was not possible to combat climate change without fighting poverty.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for developing countries to receive their "fair share" of the global carbon budget, in other words, the amount of CO₂ that can still be released into the atmosphere before warming reaches 1.5°C. "India has offered to host COP33 in 2028, which shows that it wants to move the global agenda forward," said David Waskow of the World Resources Institute.

As for the solutions to be put in place to tackle the crisis, the speeches confirmed that there was no consensus on phasing out the use of fossil fuels. The European Union and French President Emmanuel Macron called for a gradual phase-out of coal, oil and gas, the main contributors to global warming. "The top priority is for the most advanced countries to get out of fossil fuels," Macron insisted.

Japan has announced that it will halt the construction of new coal-fired power plants on its soil without CO₂ capture and storage systems, but Polish President Andrzej Duda felt that moving away from fossil fuels "too quickly" would create "too heavy a burden for society," Neither US President Joe Biden nor Chinese President Xi Jinping, heads of the two most polluting states on the planet, made the trip to Dubai. However, US Vice President Kamala Harris is due to speak on Saturday.

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