As world leaders and their climate negotiators head to Dubai for the world’s annual climate summit later this month, they’ll attempt to reach lasting agreements on curbing the rise of world temperatures. What tangible goals will they set? What agreements seem achievable?
For a preview of COP28, watch FP’s Ravi Agrawal in conversation with Vijay Vaitheeswaran, a longtime COP attendee and the Economist’s global energy and climate innovation editor.
The Economist’s Vijay Vaitheeswaran on the high distrust going into COP28 and why the phasing out of fossil fuels will be the main ticket item this year.
In order to make real progress on climate change, government aid will not suffice, and pools of capital will need to be unlocked from the private sector, according toVaitheeswaran.
Vaitheeswaran explains how Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, the UAE oil boss and president of COP28, could use his position and power to get a real accomplishment out of this year’s climate summit.

Vijay Vaitheeswaran
Global energy and climate innovation editor, the Economist
Vijay Vaitheeswaran is the global energy and climate innovation editor at the Economist. An award-winning senior journalist, he previously served as both U.S. business editor and China business editor.

Host
Ravi Agrawal
Editor in chief, Foreign Policy
Ravi Agrawal is the editor in chief of Foreign Policy, the host of FP Live, and a regular world affairs analyst on TV and radio. Before joining FP in 2018, Agrawal worked at CNN for more than a decade in full-time roles spanning three continents, including as the network’s New Delhi bureau chief and correspondent. He is the author of India Connected: How the Smartphone Is Transforming the World’s Largest Democracy.