Prime Minister Mark Brown left the country yesterday to lead the Cook Islands delegation to the 28th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP28) in Dubai, but not before making a stop in Honiara, Solomon Islands, to catch some Pacific Games action.

The United Nations Climate Change Conference will be held from November 30 to December 12, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

En route to Dubai, PM Brown will visit Honiara to witness some of the action at the Pacific Games, which will run until December 2.

He returns to Rarotonga on December 10 in time for the final Parliament sitting for the year.

A spokesperson from the Office of the PM said the Cook Islands is a Party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), including the Paris Agreement, that was the ratified on the 1st of September 2016, and is therefore entitled to participate at the annual COP meetings and has done so since COP1.

The formal opening of COP28 will take place on the Thursday, November 30, with the World Leaders Summit taking place over December 1-2. The World Leaders Summit will be hosted by UAE COP28 President-Designate, Minister Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber for participating Heads of State and Government.

Prior to the start of the COP28, from November 26-27, Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) member countries will be meeting in preparation for the negotiations during the COP. The two-day preparatory session will cover key areas of concern to AOSIS countries such as, mitigation ambition, loss and damage finance, and climate finance issue and the most critical issue for this COP the 1st Global Stock take.

“The Prime Minister has been nominated as the Pacific Islands Climate Champion for the Global Stock take, where he may be called upon to advocate and voice the Pacific region’s concerns around what the global stock take looks like both as a backward-looking view of inadequacy of commitments (emission reductions and provision of climate finance) to implementing the Paris Agreement, and importantly as a forward looking view of how to raise the emissions reduction ambition, such as through the phase-out of fossil fuels, and the increasing level of climate finance required to meet the needs of developing countries,” the spokesperson said.

“Prime Minister Brown intends to advocate for the successful implementation of the 1st Global Stock take at COP28, as the Pacific Region’s Climate Champion on the Global Stock take. The advocacy role will comprise engaging with media, bilateral meetings and involvement at Side Events.”

Earlier this month, Cook Islands Climate Change director Wayne King told Cook Islands News that the government delegation to COP28 will have 12 officials, with 10 being externally funded by international agencies.

Compared to COP27, the attendee numbers are similar and the officials that attend have been the same for at least three to four years.

Cook Islands will also be taking two youth delegates to COP28. Their trip is fully funded by the Global Youth Network.

King said the country will seek agreement on a Loss and Damage Fund, “because the tipping point is being reached shortly, and the ability of communities to cope will be compromised”.

“Thus, the economic and non-economic loss is going to be felt across island countries and regions.”