By Miriam Humbe
At the just concluded Council of the Parties, COP28 in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates in December 2023, a little over 60 countries joined the Global Cooling Pledge, (GCP).
Nigeria was represented by a high powered delegation headed by President Bola Tinubu, Minister of the Environment and his Minister of State and other high ranking government officials.
Unlike other African neighbors such as Chad, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Kenya, Nigeria did not see the dire need to sign into the pledge.
In America, fossil fuels, (coal, oil and gas) are by far the largest contributor to global climate change.
These account for over 75 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 90 per cent of all carbon dioxide emissions.
As greenhouse gas emissions blanket the Earth, they trap the sun’s heat.
It was also surprising to notice that America and similar industrialized nations such as Sweden, Turkey, Australia and the United Kingdom were not on the list of signees for the Global Cooling Pledge.
The Global Cooling Pledge provides an opportunity to commit to sustainable cooling with concrete actions.
It outlines actions to take in passive cooling strategies; such as insulation, natural shading, ventilation and reflective surfaces, higher energy efficiency standards and a rapid phase down of climate-warming hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants.
An initiative of the United Arab Emirates as host of the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), the Pledge is one of nine non-negotiated declarations, pledges, and charters that constitute key outcomes for the COP28 Presidential Action Agenda.
It aims to raise ambition and international cooperation through collective global targets to reduce cooling related emissions by 68% from today by 2050, significantly increase access to sustainable cooling by 2030, and increase the global average efficiency of new air conditioners by 50%.
The emission targets draw on the modelling from the UNEP Cool Coalition report Global Cooling Watch 2023 Keeping it Chill: How to meet cooling demands while cutting emissions.
Below are the list of countries that have pledged to the Global Cooling Pledge:
Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Belgium, Bhutan, Brazil, Brunei, Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Canada, Chad, Chile, Comoros, Costa Rica and Côte d’Ivoire,
Others were: Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Eswatini, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Ghana, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati and Kyrgyzstan.
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