By María Josefina Arce

The twenty-eighth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, a new attempt to curb the climate crisis that the planet is experiencing, is just a few hours away from opening its doors in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
    
The outlook for this meeting is not at all hopeful. A first report on the Paris Agreement, signed in 2015, showed that the world is far from meeting the objectives to contain global warming below two degrees.
   
In fact at the current rate of greenhouse gas emissions, the cause of global warming, the world is heading in the current century to an increase in its average temperature between 2.5 and 2.9 degrees.
   
This is confirmed by the annual report on emissions of these harmful gases, which is a serious warning of the catastrophe the planet may face in the not too distant future.
   
Inger Andersen, executive director of UNEP, the United Nations Environment Program, urged developed nations, which are responsible for 80% of these emissions, to take the lead in effectively reducing them.
    
Experts believe that a change is needed, to encourage even more the use of renewable energy sources and the abandonment of fossil fuels. An urgency that clashes with the interests of the most industrialized countries and the major producers of oil, coal and gas.
   
Another issue to be taken into account is support for the least developed countries to achieve this energy transition and mitigate the negative consequences of the climate crisis, because although they are the least polluting countries on the planet, they suffer the most from the phenomena associated with climate change.
   
This is the case of the small island states, which face the degradation of the natural resources that sustain their economies and, worse still, are in danger of disappearing as a result of rising sea levels.
   
In the face of record global temperatures and the increasingly frequent and intense natural phenomena affecting the world's population, it is urgent to adopt more ambitious actions and commitments in favor of the planet.
  
The twenty-eighth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is a new opportunity on this path that must not be missed, as time is running out and the survival of humanity is at risk.