President Barzani attends UAE National Day celebrations in Dubai
Shafaq News/ Nechirvan Barzani, the President of the Kurdistan region of Iraq, participated in the United Arab Emirates' National Day celebrations in Dubai on Saturday evening.
The celebrations were held concurrently with the ongoing United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), which began on Thursday and will last for two weeks.
A statement released by the region's presidency said, "during the ceremony, President Barzani expressed his well wishes on behalf of the Kurdistan region to Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the President of the United Arab Emirates, and to the people of the UAE, wishing them progress, prosperity, and success."
The conference, officially called UNCCC, is a who's who of about 150 of Earth’s top decision-makers — except the two most powerful men: Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping of the United States and China. The leaders of the two most carbon-polluting nations were glaringly absent.
In the first of two days of the two-week summit, presidents, prime ministers, and royals from nations rich and poor trotted up to the microphone Friday to lay out commitments to reduce how much their countries spew heat-trapping gases and asked their colleagues to do better.
Critics, advocacy groups, and even some leaders themselves said that the words of promise must be followed by deals hammered out by diplomats in the coming days.
The conference president on Friday issued a document calling for a "phase-down" of fossil fuels, which experts say is less than a phase-out. But 106 nations in Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and the Pacific signed a statement calling for a full exit. It is up to the more than 190 countries in the talks to come up with an agreement everyone can be happy with, said conference Director General Majid al-Suwaidi.
