Good fire governance and climate goals — COP28 Dubai

At COP28 in Dubai, I presented at a side event promoted by AGIF on the connection between good fire governance and climate goals.

The core argument: landscape fires are not just a hazard to manage after the fact — they are deeply tied to land use, ecosystem health and carbon budgets. Countries that build coherent, cross-sector fire governance systems are better placed to meet both their disaster-risk-reduction and climate commitments.

The talk drew on the work behind the Landscape Fire Governance Framework, which sets out a structured way for countries to assess and improve how they organise fire management across prevention, preparedness, response and recovery.

Fire governance is not a technical afterthought to climate policy — it is part of the same system.

The full framework document is available below, along with the recording of the session.