President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will be in Dubai for this week’s COP28 summit as world leaders convene to discuss the fight against the impact of climate change.

The United Nations Climate Change Conference, commonly known as COP28, will be a platform where the international community will take stock of its progress on the Paris Agreement, which Türkiye is also a party. The president is scheduled to arrive in the United Arab Emirates on Thursday.

Ankara advocates for more concrete action against the impact of climate change and the prevention of global warming instead of commitment plans.

Türkiye works to reach a net zero emission goal by 2053 and double its goal to 41% by 2030. It also revised its climate change law after consultation with relevant parties and based on scientific data. It boosted the size of its preserved areas and through ecological corridors, it expanded its green spaces. The country is also among the top three in the world with its 551 Blue Flag beaches.

In addition, Türkiye leads global efforts for recycling through the "zero waste project" spearheaded by first lady Emine Erdoğan. It was jointly developed on an international level last year by Erdoğan and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The declaration of goodwill, initially signed by the first lady and the U.N. chief, has since been endorsed by the spouses of nearly 30 heads of state, including ones from France, South Korea, Paraguay and Cuba. Launched in 2017 by the Ministry of Environment, Urban Planning and Climate Change under the patronage of Erdoğan, the Zero Waste Project has led Türkiye’s fight against climate change. The initiative primarily aims to align the country with sustainable development principles, prevent uncontrolled waste and leave a "cleaner, developed" country for future generations.

The project received awards last year from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the U.N.-Habitat program. It was also included in an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) country report in 2019 as a promising project. Recently, it was honored by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean before the first lady was awarded the Climate and Development Leadership Award for the project by the World Bank.

The zero waste initiative has already stemmed 3.9 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions and saved billions of dollars. Some 150,000 buildings across Türkiye have switched to the zero waste management system, which involves the separate disposal of garbage and recycling practices.

The ministry prepared a regulation on the issue in 2019, setting the guidelines for recycling practices. In addition, some 17 million people are said to have been educated on adopting zero waste practices since the project’s inception in 2017.

Türkiye will host about 45 events during the summit on different topics. Halil Hasar, head of the Climate Change department of the Ministry of Environment, Urban Planning and Climate Change, said that they would work to ensure decisions in line with Türkiye's interests will be taken at the summit. He said they would hold conferences, panels and similar events at the COP28 venue with the participation of representatives from the public and private sector, nongovernmental organizations, academics and local administrations during the event that will take place between Nov. 30 and Dec. 12. Topics will include compliance with climate change-related regulations, health, technology, transforming energy resources and zero waste.

Hasar said in a written statement that they charted a determined path for the fight against climate change and made preparations for the summit with technical meetings of all relevant parties and agencies in Türkiye. Environment and Urban Planning Minister Mehmet Özhaseki will represent Türkiye at the ministerial level at COP28.

He said that their expectation from the summit was "fair and comprehensive decisions," particularly on funding the struggle against climate change. He added that as Türkiye, they would exert efforts for the summit to take "applicable decisions that will not leave anyone behind" and counted on developed countries to make decisions to that extent for funding the fight. "More than 100 topics will be discussed at the summit but the summit's stocktaking theme will be important as the countries need to view where they stand at climate action and support (other countries) for climate action. It is an important process for a faster and goal-oriented climate action work," he said. Hasar highlighted the significance of funding mechanisms required for technological transformation to reduce emissions.

"An efficient mechanism can be established through the assistance of developed countries to developing countries for climate investment. It is important to carry out the commitment of $100 billion annually to developing countries for emission reduction and compliance with climate change-related regulations.

Summit of reckoning

Delegates from nearly 200 countries will convene for the summit in Dubai, where the conference host and Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) member UAE hopes to sell the vision of a low-carbon future that includes, not shuns, fossil fuels. That narrative, also backed by other big oil producer nations, will throw the spotlight on international divisions at the summit over the best way to combat global warming: Countries are split over whether to prioritize phasing out coal and oil and gas or scale up technologies like carbon capture to scrub away their climate impact. The annual summit is taking place as the world is poised to shatter another record for the hottest year in 2023, and as new reports confirm countries' current climate pledges are not enough to avert the worst impacts of global warming.

Among the key decisions nations must make in Dubai will be whether to agree, for the first time, to gradually "phase out" global consumption of fossil fuels and replace them with sources like solar, wind and others. Underscoring the rift, the International Energy Agency, the West’s energy watchdog, issued a report ahead of the conference defining its position. It called the idea of widespread carbon capture an "illusion" and said the fossil fuel industry must decide between deepening the climate crisis or shifting to clean energy. That report triggered an angry response from the OPEC, which accused the IEA of vilifying oil producers.

"This presents an extremely narrow framing of the challenges before us, and perhaps expediently plays down such issues as energy security, energy access and energy affordability," OPEC said in a statement. Greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels are the biggest cause of climate change.

A big job for countries at COP28 will be to assess how far off track they are from meeting promises to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial times. This process, known as the "global stocktake," should yield a high-level plan telling countries what to do to achieve that goal. It will then be up to governments to turn that global plan into national policies and targets, which they will have to submit to the U.N. in 2025. Leading up to the conference, the European Union, the U.S. and the UAE have rallied support for a deal to triple global renewable energy installed by 2030. Over 100 countries have backed this deal, officials told Reuters, but countries including China and India are not yet fully on board. U.S. officials and others are hopeful a recent climate deal between the U.S. and China may also set a positive tone for the talks. In that deal, the world’s two largest greenhouse gas emitters agreed to boost renewable energy and "accelerate the substitution for coal, oil and gas generation."

Though that deal did not include a "phase down" of coal, a senior U.S. official said to expect a new linguistic "concoction" to capture this goal. The U.S.-China deal had called for the two to "accelerate the substitution for coal, oil and gas generation" that would lead to "meaningful" power sector emission reductions.

Another key task for the conference is to launch a world-first climate damage fund, dedicated to helping countries that have already suffered irreparable damage from climate change impacts like drought, floods and rising sea levels. Representatives from developed and developing countries have struck a tentative agreement on its design. All countries will review that deal and some could raise objections. That deal is not final until countries at COP28 approve it.

Another test is whether wealthy nations announce money for the fund at COP28 – to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. The EU and the U.S. have already said they will contribute and are pressuring countries like China and the UAE to follow.

"Speaking from previous experience, unfortunately, most of the global agreements, most of the global climate-related pledges went uncompleted," Najib Ahmed, national consultant at Somalia's Climate Ministry, told Reuters. "But again, we cannot lose hope."