From the Department of Banging the Rumspringa cycle.
United Arab Emirates leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum announced on Wednesday his country would host the next United Nations climate conference in 2023. This will be the 12th such conference since the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015, when it replaced the Kyoto Protocol. The first was held in Nagoya, Japan, in 2009, followed by one in Doha, Qatar, in 2011 and one in Marrakech, Morocco, in 2015.
“At a time when the international climate issue is facing greater challenges due to the rise of extreme weather events, which are not only posing a threat to our existence but also the survival of many countries across the world, the UAE is keen to contribute its ideas, knowledge and experience to improve our climate and make the UAE to be an absolute leader in mitigating climate change,” Sheikh Mohammed said, according to Reuters.
The U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the announcement an “important and a timely message” as the world prepares to host COP24 in the next year.
This announcement comes only two weeks after the 2018 climate conference in Poland. In its final statement, the climate conference said it had “unified agreement” on building more efficiency standards for homes and vehicles as well as appliances such as clothes driers. The conference declared that emissions from road transport must fall by 50 percent by 2050, compared to 2005.
Bloomberg reports other topics on the agenda for upcoming climate conferences include ways to help forest fires in Canada and help combat severe drought in Somalia.
On Dec. 1, the International Monetary Fund announced that the Saudi economy may see a rough year. That’s because of the war in Yemen, which has contributed to high unemployment among young Saudis, along with high oil prices that have led to budget deficits. The IMF further noted that there was weak demand for oil products outside of the country’s oil-importing region of east Asia and the Middle East.
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