Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], May 26 (ANI): Reliance Industries' Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani has been appointed as a member of the Advisory Committee to the President of the 28th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Mukesh Ambani is the only Indian, other than Sunita Narain, Director General, Centre for Science and Environment, on the Advisory Committee to the President of COP28.

Reliance chief Ambani joined other important global leaders on the COP28 Advisory Council such as Larry Fink, Chairman and CEO of BlackRock, Olafur Grimsson, Chairman of Arctic Circle (Former President of Iceland), Laurent Fabius, President of COP21 / Paris Agreement, Former Prime Minister of France, Francesco La Camera, Director General, International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Bob Dudley, Chair of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), former CEO of BP.

The COP28 UAE Advisory Committee brings together the climate expertise of thought leaders from countries across six continents.

UAE will host the 28th session of the Conference of Parties (COP 28) to the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) from November 30, 2023 to December 12, 2023. It is set to be held at Dubai Expo City.

COP or the Conference of Parties is the apex decision-making body of UNFCCC. UNFCCC was instituted to deal with the growing threat of climate change. It was signed in 1992 at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development also known as Rio Summit or Earth Summit. The Secretariat of UNFCCC is located in Bonn, Germany.

Representing policy, industry, energy, finance, civil society, youth, and humanitarian action, the 31 members of the Committee, of which 65 per cent are from the Global South, will provide guidance and counsel to the COP Presidency in the run-up to COP28 and beyond.

The UNFCCC Secretariat announced in January 2023 it appointed Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and UAE Special Envoy for Climate Change, as COP 28 President-Designate.

The Presidency and venue of COP rotate among the five recognized UN regions - Caribbean, Latin America, Asia, Africa, Central, Eastern and Western Europe. The first COP meeting was held in Berlin, Germany in March 1995. COP is held every year unless the Parties decide otherwise. (ANI)