The RSPB at COP28 – the UN climate change conference

COP28 is the UN’s climate change conference. The aim is to get countries of the world together to agree targets and policies that mitigate climate change, and help to adapt to its impacts.

It’s also known as Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, so you can understand why they shorten it to COP!

Climate change is one of the greatest threats to birds and other wildlife, and both nature and the climate are in a state of emergency. COP offers a chance for countries of the world to make real positive change. But time is running out. To tackle climate change, we need to do two things: rapidly replace the usage of fossil fuels with clean 'green' energy, and protect our precious ecosystems, including peat bogs, woodlands and wetlands that lock in carbon. If we don’t restore nature, mitigating climate change isn’t going to happen.

In 2015, COP attendees signed the Paris Agreement, which agreed to a target to keep the rise in global temperature to 1.5 degrees by 2030, as this will substantially reduce the effects of climate change. In practice, this means cutting emissions by 50% by the year 2030.

At COP28, the focus was on the first major Global Stocktake of climate action, to see if the world is on track to meet these emissions targets. Sadly, we already know that we are not, but the Global Stocktake is used to set out a plan for what we need to do to get back on track. In particular, the success of COP28 boiled down to whether countries could come to an agreement to rapidly phase out fossil fuel emissions.

Organisations such as the RSPB are ‘accredited observers’ to the COP and play a critical role in the process. We were there to hold governments to account to ensure we achieved the right outcomes for nature. And in a state of emergency, every year counts.

We know that any action on climate must also be joined up with action on nature. The science is very clear that we must tackle the nature and climate emergencies together, to be successful at either. So we were there to be a voice of nature – it was our opportunity to represent our members and supporters on a world stage, and to ensure that the role of nature in the climate emergency is acknowledged.

The RSPB’s Melanie Coath (Head of Global Policy) and Alex Mackaness (Senior Policy Officer) attended, alongside representatives from other BirdLife Partners.

The RSPB’s activity at COP28 focussed on sharing our recommendations to the negotiators of countries around the world, to support them in achieving ambitious outcomes. We were very active on the COP Nature Day on 9 December, and on 10 December, when our representatives ran an official Side Event looking at the role of nature in the Global Stocktake.

We had a simple message – we can’t forget the role of nature in the climate change debate, and actions for the climate must also work for nature.

If governments do their bit for the climate, it must benefit nature too. So they must invest in nature, whether that’s expanding the native woodlands, restoring peatlands, and protecting critical coastland wetlands.

These nature-based solutions, which include bringing more green spaces to our towns and cities have a role to play in tackling climate change. But these aren’t an alternative to phasing out the use of fossil fuels, which needs to happen both rapidly and urgently.

For a safe climate future, we need to drastically reduce how much we use fossil fuels… and also allow nature to thrive.

Climate change can feel overwhelming. While we need urgent action, there is hope – and we believe a vision of a future where nature thrives, water is clean, and the climate is stable once more, can and must be a reality.