Ahead of COP28, Najam Delineates Efficacy of Annual COP Proceedings
As world leaders and negotiators get ready for the latest round of global climate negotiations, COP28, which begin in Dubai on November 30th and will continue till December 12, 2023, Adil Najam, Dean Emeritus and Professor at Boston University’s Pardee School of Global Studies and President of WWF-International, was featured on the BBC Climate Talk podcast in the episode “What has COP achieved?” to discuss COP28 alongside a panel of other experts.
The episode and discussion can be heard in full here:
In the podcast, Najam discussed the reasons why COP as an annual conference was not as productive as some had hoped, citing the spectacle of the event as one of the reasons for distraction. Najam argued that the proceedings had strayed from its original purpose as a protocol- and consensus-based gathering, but rather into a forum for each country and stakeholder to project their views. The result of this shift, Najam believed, has become that the difficult task of negotiation has become a less prominent feature of COP. The conference raises awareness and creates conversation around climate change, but increasingly unavailing in producing new legislation on climate action.
Adil Najam is Dean Emeritus and Professor at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University and since July 2023 also serves as the President of WWF-International. He served as the Inaugural Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies from 2014-2022. He is also a former Vice-Chancellor of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). His research focuses on issues of global public policy, especially those related to global climate change, South Asia, Muslim countries, environment and development, and human development. Read more about Najam on his Pardee School faculty profile.