China has decided not to host the COP33 climate summit in 2028, leaving other Asian countries as potential hosts for the meeting in Turkey this week.
China has decided not to host the COP33 UN climate summit in 2028 after months of deliberation, according to reporting by The Guardian. The decision leaves the field open for other Asian countries to bid for the meeting.
Under the rotation rules of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, an Asian country is due to host the 2028 talks. The Guardian reported that Uzbekistan, South Korea, Indonesia and Thailand are among the countries considering a bid. India weighed an offer earlier this year but also decided against it. No decision on the 2028 host is expected at COP31, which is underway in Antalya, Turkey, under a joint Turkish and Australian presidency.
Former US Vice President Al Gore told The Guardian he would have supported a Chinese bid and called the decision "too bad." John Kerry, the former US secretary of state, told the Guardian that China was leaving the rest of the world behind in forging and using the low-carbon technologies of the future. Gareth Redmond-King, the international lead at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit thinktank, said China’s position as an industrial powerhouse would have made it a formidable contender to hold the summit.
It is not clear why China decided against hosting the conference. Several experts quoted by the Guardian pointed to the US political calendar: COP33 is scheduled for November 6 to 17, 2028, and the next US presidential election falls on November 7 that year. Even if a Democrat wins, President Donald Trump would remain in office until January 2029. Trump rejects climate science, has pulled the United States out of the Paris Agreement and is withdrawing it from the UN climate convention itself.
The 2028 summit will carry out the second global stocktake under the Paris Agreement, a review of whether national pledges are on track to limit warming to 1.5C. Experts say that limit will now be breached and that countries should try to keep the overshoot as small as possible. China is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases. Its renewable generating capacity has overtaken coal, its greenhouse gas emissions appear to have fallen slightly this year and electric vehicles made up nearly two-thirds of new car sales last month, according to figures cited in the report.
Sources
This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.
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