Ministers and delegations attending the preparatory meeting of COP28, or Pre-Cop28, agreed to avoid the scenario of global warming by over 1.5 degrees Celsius, according to Majid Al Suwaidi, the COP28 director-general on Tuesday.

COP28 is this year's UN Climate Change Conference, or the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The pre-COP28 meeting with around 70 ministers and 100 delegations in attendance was held in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, on Monday and Tuesday. 

Since 1995, the UN Climate Change Conference has been gathering 198 signatories to the convention annually for a two-week meeting to curb global warming and adapt to its effects.

After the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015, the conference has focused on implementing the agreement and making progress towards the aims of limiting global warming to "well below 2C" while "pursuing efforts" to keep it to 1.5C.

After a year of extreme weather, COP28, which is scheduled from November 30 to December 12 in Dubai, the UAE, is expected to be a chance for governments to accelerate action to limit global warming.

The year 2023 is on track to become the hottest since at least 1940, the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service said in October.

(Cover image: Majid Al Suwaidi, the COP28 director-general, speaks at a press conference of the preparatory meeting ahead of COP28 in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, October 31, 2023. /CMG)