Daily Insider: As leaders head home, key COP28 negotiations start

Many global leaders who have attended COP28 in recent days have started heading back home. As a result, the limelight that has accompanied this annual event will start to fade into the background.

But the key horse trading and dealmaking is set to start now with the roughly 80,000 delegates getting down the business end of the event.

So far, there have been some encouraging signs around this particular climate summit, with the issues of health and food security making it onto the agenda for the first time.

Among the key highlights this weekend have been that over $57bn was raised in the first four days to support priorities across the global climate agenda, according to Dr Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and COP28 President.

Over the weekend, I also had an interesting exclusive interview with a head of state, who is regarded as a reformer, on how the world’s tropical zoned countries can play a major role in reducing global warming. Approximately 40% of the world’s population lives in this zone, and part of the plan involves driving up renewable energy in this part of the globe as well as protecting key green belts. The plan, I’m told, has the backing of key leaders including Brazil’s President Lula.

Keep posted to Gulf Business as we’ll be publishing this global exclusive interview during the course of this week…