THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 2024 29 path to net zero emissions by 2050. With Norway, we launched the Green Shipping Challenge, aimed at decarbonization of the international shipping sector through, among other things, the creation of green shipping corridors. Importantly, we also placed a strong emphasis on adaptation, particularly in Africa, given the focus of Egypt—as COP27 host—on the climate resilience of its region. COP27 also answered the call from the world’s most vulnerable countries to establish funding arrangements to respond to climate change effects (so-called “loss and damage”). In 2023, we built on the momentum from the U.K.- and Egypthosted COPs. President Biden again convened the leaders of the major economies to galvanize stronger climate action. The United States made major progress toward the president’s goal of quadrupling U.S. support for developing country climate action. State and USAID scaled up the President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience (PREPARE), a major whole-of-government initiative working to help more than half a billion people around the world build resilience to climate impacts by 2030. We unlocked more than $1 billion in global grant funding for Global Methane Pledge implementation. We concluded the Sunnylands Statement with China, now the world’s largest emitter by a factor of three, in which they made the important move toward an NDC that will cover the entire economy and all greenhouse gases. And throughout the entire year, we worked tirelessly across diplomatic channels to help deliver a cleareyed, comprehensive Global Stocktake at COP28 in Dubai. Looking Ahead Though we have no doubt come a long way, the most difficult work has only just begun. Success in addressing climate change will involve hitting very ambitious marks continuously over the course of the coming decades. We will need the world’s major and emerging economies to make ambitious emissions reduction commitments and then deliver on them. We will need to build the climate resilience of half a billion people under PREPARE. We will need to get the global energy system to zero-carbon by 2050, to end deforestation by 2030, to make major progress by 2030 in slashing emissions of methane and other climate super pollutants, and to dramatically accelerate the deployment of carbon management Secretary of State Antony Blinken greets the team at the U.S. Center at COP28 in December 2023. Author Sue Biniaz is immediately to his right. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE We will need the world’s major and emerging economies to make ambitious emissions reduction commitments and then deliver on them.
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