The 27th of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, or Conference of the Parties (COP), was held from 6 November to 20 November 2022 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, with the attendance of nearly two hundred countries from the global North and the global South, following the COP26, which was held in Glasgow last year (Foreign Policy, 2021). The key themes of the COP27 were adaptation to climate change, financing climate action, renewable energy use, net zero emissions target, impacts of climate change on societies, and protecting biodiversity (United Nations, 2022). Of these, adaptation to climate change, financing climate action, and mitigation of climate change impacts were at the forefront. The conference also resolved to encourage countries to set more ambitious emissions reduction targets for 2030, which entails the bringing forward of 2050 reduction or net zero targets (RECOFTC, 2022).

The year 2022 has seen intensified climate events such as deadly floods submerging one-third of Pakistan and drought in East Africa which plunged millions into food insecurity (Foreign Policy, 2022). It is estimated that the floods in Pakistan resulted in $30bn of damage and economic losses (The Guardian, 2022). Accordingly, many already expected adaptation to climate change and financing climate action to be headline issues of the COP27. More specifically, the creation of a loss and damage fund for developing countries that have suffered great damage due to climate change, but that are historically less responsible of the carbon emissions causing extreme climate events (Foreign Policy, 2022). In line with this expectation, the most highlighted outcome of the COP27 seems to be parties having reached an agreement to set up a loss and damage fund, which will provide the capital needed to rescue and rebuild the physical and social infrastructure of countries devastated by extreme climate events. The global South has been pursuing this goal for nearly three decades. However, how the fund will be financed remains to be seen (The Guardian, 2022).

At the COP26, the participants had been called upon to phase down unabated coal power and inefficient subsidies for fossil fuels. The parties agreed to phase down coal power, marking the first time a resolution on fossil fuels had been included in the final text of a COP conference. Another major outcome of the COP26 was the agreement on a global temperature increase limit of 1.5 C, and the revision of country commitments to reach that target each year to strengthen the efficacy of efforts (United Nations Climate Change, 2021). At the COP27, the participants reiterated their commitments to keep the increase limit at 1.5 C above the pre-industrial levels. Parties also agreed that the globe needs to cut greenhouse gas emissions nearly in half by 2030. However, in the year since COP26, only a fraction of countries updated their national climate targets, while definite commitments to phase out all fossil fuels and a clear path to phasing down coal were missing. These shortcomings appeared to be a significantly disappointing outcome of the COP27, in addition to constituting a setback forclimate change mitigation efforts (Reuters, 2022).  Large CO2 emitters and oil-producing countries foiled efforts to include language on phasing out fossil fuel use in the final text. Several nations, including China and Saudi Arabia, blocked a key proposal to phase out all fossil fuels (Foreign Policy, 2022).

Further, at the COP26, parties had agreed to facilitate the resiliency of developing countries (e.g. by building flood defences, preserving wetlands, restoring mangrove swamps and regrowing forests) against extreme climate events by doubling the amount of the annual adaptation fund from $20bn to $40bn,  an amount  that the global North had promised for the developing nations. Though some countries sought to remove that commitment, doubling the adaptation fund was reaffirmed at the COP27. However, even though the developed world had promised a total of $100bn annual climate fund for poor from the year 2020, that promise is yet to have been fulfilled (The Guardian, 2022).

As to sum-up the COP27 outcome, underlining the disagreement on phasing out all fossil fuels, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres stated that the loss and damage fund is not the answer to the problems, if the climate crisis washes a small island state off the map—or turns an entire African country to a desert (Foreign Policy, 2022).

Additionally, the COP27 saw the resuming of formal climate negotiations between the US and China, where the talks focus on specific action points such as enhancing China’s plan to reduce emissions of methane – a powerful greenhouse gas – and overall emissions targets of the two countries. The formal talks were frozen by China this summer, and resuming of the talks can be seen as a favourable development in terms of efforts to mitigate climate change impacts, as the two countries are the world’s two largest carbon emitters (CNN, 2022).

According to the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), global temperatures have risen 1.1 ⁰C and are heading towards 1.5 C. If temperatures rise 1.7 C to 1.8 C above 1850s levels, i.e. the pre-industrial era, the IPCC estimates that half the word’s population could be exposed to life-threatening heat and humidity (BBC, 2022), which will present itself in the form of the risk of extreme drought, wildfires, floods and food shortages (CNN, 2022).

Written by Baran C. Eriş.

Sources

COP27, United Nations, 2022: https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/cop27

What will be the main topics and focus of COP27 in Egypt, and what are the prospects for success?, RECOFTC, 2022: https://www.recoftc.org/special-report/Report-COP26-land-use-sector/what-will-be-main-topics-and-focus-cop27-egypt-and-what-are-prospects-success

‘We couldn’t fail them’: how Pakistan’s floods spurred fight at Cop for loss and damage fund, The Guardian, 2022: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/20/loss-and-damage-pakistan-flooding-climate-justice-cop27

What are the key outcomes of Cop27 climate summit?, The Guardian, 2022: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/20/cop27-climate-summit-egypt-key-outcomes

Glasgow Climate Change Conference, United Nations Climate Change, 2021: https://unfccc.int/conference/glasgow-climate-change-conference-october-november-2021

COP27 delivers climate fund breakthrough at cost of progress on emissions, Reuters, 2022: https://www.reuters.com/business/cop/countries-agree-loss-damage-fund-final-cop27-deal-elusive-2022-11-20/

COP27 summit agrees to help climate victims. But it does nothing to stop fossil fuels, CNN, 2022: https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/19/world/cop27-egypt-agreement-climate-intl/

What is COP27 and why is it important?, BBC, 2022: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-63316362

Key Takeaways From COP27, Morning Brief, Foreign Policy, 2022: https://click1.crm.foreignpolicy.com/ViewMessage.do;jsessionid=16776EE37E25BC23973BD15D6936D96A

4 Key Takeaways From COP26, Foreign Policy, 2021: https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/11/15/cop26-climate-change-un-conference-takeaways/?utm_source=PostUp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Morning%20Brief%20OC&utm_term=58412&tpcc=Morning%20Brief%20OC