With global temperatures hitting the record highs we have witnessed this year, and extreme weather events affecting people around the globe, this year's UN climate change conference, COP28, represents a pivotal opportunity to correct course and accelerate action to tackle the climate crisis. The United Arab Emirates is hosting COP28 on behalf of Asia, as the COP presidency rotates each year, with the five different UN regions taking it in turn to appoint a country to host on their behalf. The idea of holding COP28 in a petrostate raised eyebrows from the very moment the United Arab Emirates was announced as this year's host country. The UAE's choice of Sultan al-Jaber as conference president also met fierce criticism, given that his other job is chief executive of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., one of the world's largest petroleum producers.

COP28 is where the world will take stock of progress on the Paris Agreement - the landmark climate treaty concluded in 2015 - and chart a course of action to dramatically reduce emissions with the aim to protect lives and livelihoods. Some of the most important questions on the agenda will be: should countries move quickly to phase out their fossil fuel production or opt for a more gradual "phase-down"? Will wealthy governments like the U.S. cough up tens of billions of dollars for poorer nations' climate damage? And as one of the world's richest countries today, should China pay too, even though its industrialisation has occurred fairly recently?

The annual UN climate summits have drawn criticism for having grown unwieldy, thronging with corporate lobbyists and marked more by non-binding pledges and squabbles over grammar than their ability to deliver change. But they do have a real-world impact, and the number one reason to support them remains that they are the one forum where everyone - from the world's richest countries to its smallest and most marginal - gets a say.

This year's summit marks eight years since countries signed the Paris Agreement, which sets targets for curbing planetary warming. Countries will now be asked to respond to assessments - known collectively as the "global stocktake" - showing that they've failed to do as promised. They will also be asked to flesh out the pledge they made at last year's summit in Sharm El-Sheikh towards the creation of a new fund to pay developing nations for the losses they're suffering from climate change.

In a joint statement last week, the US and China said they support efforts to triple global renewable energy capacity by 2030 - something the European Union has championed - and would work to accelerate its deployment domestically. The US is already using President Joe Biden's climate law to push for a rapid expansion of clean energy at home, but a divided Congress will make it hard for it to do more internationally. Last week's US-China agreement included a pledge by China for the first time to agree to including greenhouse gases besides carbon dioxide in its next climate action plan. The nations will combine with the UAE to host a methane and non-CO2 gas summit at COP28.

One voice who will not be there is the Bangladeshi champion of action to tackle climate change, Dr Saleemul Huq, who tragically passed away last month. Right up to the time of his death, he was involved in important advocacy work to save the world from the worst effects of global warming. Let us hope that the conference this year lives up to the rich legacy he left behind, of caring for the planet, and its 8 billion people.