Leaders and activists must fight to the end in Dubai to stop vested interests sabotaging progress on fossil fuel phase-out and adaptation
As Cop28 in Dubai enters its final hours, the emotional weight of the moment is hard to bear. I find myself thinking of a six-year-old boy called Desmond I met in Turkana county, Kenya, who died from severe acute malnutrition on the same day. His death was the result of a climate-induced drought that has left millions of people on the brink of starvation in the Horn of Africa.
I want the negotiators deciding the outcome of Cop28 to know Desmond’s story. Because in the end, the climate crisis is not about pledges, statistics, reports or activists. It’s about human suffering and ruined lives. It’s about death.
Vanessa Nakate is a climate activist, Unicef goodwill ambassador and author of A Bigger Picture: My fight to bring a new African voice to the climate crisis
