The successful 28th meeting of the Conference of the Parties, which was held under the leadership of the United Arab Emirates, has boosted the hope of an environmentally clean world (“200 nations at COP28 adopt landmark ‘UAE Consensus’ to move away from fossil fuels,” Dec.13, Gulf Today website).

According to the report, nearly 200 nations meeting in Dubai on Wednesday approved a first-ever call for the world to transition away from fossil fuels, the top culprit of climate change behind a planetary crisis. After 13 days of talks and another sleepless night, within minutes of opening Wednesday’ session, Sultan Al Jaber gavelled approval of the central document — the global stocktake that says how far the world is off-track it climate-fighting goals and how it is going to get back. Delegates stood and hugged each other.

Climate change is the number one challenge the world is facing. The existence of the world is at stake. At the challenging time the meeting of more than 200 countries under the leadership of the United Arab Emirates and the decision taken by the members to deal with climate change is highly laudable.

The credit goes to the visionary leadership of the United Arab Emirates who worked hard day and night to make the COP28 conference successful and I am sure the result of the COP20 meeting will be fruitful for the whole world.

Junaid Saleem, By email