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The UN International Climate Conference (COP28) opened in Dubai. Heads of state and government from more than 190 countries, scientists and representatives of civil society will take part in its work until December 12.

COP28 will host over hundreds of events dedicated to climate change. The key one is the World Climate Action Summit on December 1-2. A session of the High- Level Segment is scheduled on the same dates. It will feature heads of state and government making national statements on their countries' positions on the climate crisis. President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov is taking part in the summit.

The conference takes place at the Dubai Exhibition Center (Expo City). It is expected that it will host more than 70 thousand delegates from different countries. This is the largest number of participants in the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in history.

On Thursday, delegates to the 28th UN Climate Change Conference decided to create a new fund to help developing countries prevent and recover from climate change-related disasters.

On the first day of the conference, several governments made initial contributions to the new fund. The host nation contributed $100 million; Germany contributed a similar amount; $51 million – UK. The US contributed $17.5 million.

COP28 President Sultan Al Jaber said the decision was "a positive signal for the world and for our work in Dubai."

COP28 comes against the backdrop of devastating floods and massive wildfires plaguing the planet this year, as well as the hottest summer on Earth on record this year and, with a high probability, the hottest year in the entire history of mankind.

The summit is seen as an opportunity for countries to better manage climate change through the development of joint goals and through various instruments, including climate finance.

Since the adoption of the Paris Agreement at COP21 in 2015, summit participants are focused on achieving its main goal - to prevent global temperature rise above 2 degrees Celsius.

At COP28, the parties will for the first time conduct a so-called “global inventory” of the Paris Agreement - an analysis of humanity’s collective progress towards achieving the Paris goals.

Based on the results of the monitoring there will be developed a plan, that can guide the international community to achieve climate goals. Governments will then be required to integrate this global plan into national climate change plans and report progress to the UN in 2025.

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Photo: REUTERS