The University of Tennessee’s Institute for a Secure & Sustainable Environment (ISSE) is an observer non-governmental organization (NGOs) member of UNFCCC for the university. ISSE Director Dr. Mingzhou Jin leads this effort, and he attended multiple panels at COP 28 related to climate change, energy, economic development, and health. Also representing UT at the conference was Dr. Chika Okafor of UTIA.

In close alignment with UNFCCC’s visions, Drs. Chien-fei Chen, Mingzhou Jin, and Leon Tolbert will start a new project addressing climate change, energy, and health funded by the Wellcome Trust. This global stocktake is the central outcome of COP28 and contains every element that was under negotiation and can now be used by countries to develop stronger climate action plans, which are due by 2025. COP28 calls for actions towards achieving clean energy transition, mitigating health risks posed by climate change, and promoting social justice. 

UN Climate Change conferences take place every year and are the world’s only multilateral decision-making forum on climate change with membership from almost every country. COPs are where the world comes together to agree on ways to address the climate crisis, such as limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, helping vulnerable communities adapt to the effects of climate change, and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.

Why is COP 28 important?

With the most important details of the Paris Climate Change Agreement negotiated and agreed over the last few years, COP 28 was devoted to implementing the Agreement and ramping up ambition and action. The latest science from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change indicates that greenhouse gas emissions need to be cut 43% by 2030, compared to 2019 levels. It is critical to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of this century to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, such as more frequent and severe droughts, heatwaves, and rainfall.