Participants at this weekend’s UN climate conference were reminded of the risks humanity faces today. Host city Dubai was shrouded in thick smog on Sunday and air pollution levels reached values ​​considered “unhealthy”, wrote AFP. Meanwhile, at the COP28 conference, a debate on the impact of climate change on the human organism was held as part of the “Day of Health”.

“Not much for an oil-rich host country,” he commented on the situation this morning website Political. According to AFP, pollution in Dubai has been visible since the start of climate talks, reaching levels of 155 micrograms of particles known as PM2.5 per cubic meter on Sunday, at least according to the site. waqi.info map air quality around the world.

This concentration falls into the zone labeled “unhealthy”, where even people who are not in the vulnerable group can start to experience health problems. This morning, there were around one hundred data on the website.

In the COP28 program, Sunday was celebrated as “health day”, where participants discussed the negative impacts of climate change, including on air quality. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that pollution associated with the use of fossil fuels contributes to the deaths of more than four million people each year. According to him, the concentration of PM2.5 particles released during the burning of coal, oil or gas should not exceed five micrograms per cubic meter.

Dubai is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates, with estimates in 2020 of nearly 3.5 million people living there. The main airport here is associated with the largest volume of carbon emissions of any airport in the world, according to Fresh data the Climate Trace organization, which compiles a detailed picture of the planet’s emissions sources. Dubai is also home to the world’s largest gas-fired power plant, writes AFP.

This giant complex is located quite close to the exhibition center where COP28 has been taking place since the end of November, and several participants on social networks they said, so they can see it from their hotel room. “Very fitting. I will be watching this for two weeks in the fog of pollution. Welcome to COP28,” wrote Canadian environmental activist Tzeporah Berman.

One of the topics of the conference in Dubai was the shift away from the use of fossil fuels in the energy and other sectors. Experts agree that this procedure should be a response to increasing climate change, manifested by global warming and an increase in extreme events such as droughts, fires or floods. It is not yet clear whether world leaders in Dubai will commit to phasing out fossil fuels for the first time.

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