As the world faces an exceptional year marked by the war in Ukraine, food crisis, global inflation, and debt crisis in lower-income countries, the international community is hoping that this COP27 will bring increased ambitions and more action. Held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, from the 6th to the 18th of November, COP27 will take a closer look at some of the most important climate change topics of the moment while reinforcing previous COPs’ achievements.
Last year’s COP made it clear that corporates are leading the way to fight climate change, nevertheless Glasgow’s COP26 closed several historic pledges by governments and produced important rulebooks:
- Over 200 governments signed the Glasgow Climate Pact, in which, they commit to take action with proper rules and systems.
- 65 countries committed to “phasedown coal power” while investing on transitioning towards clean energies. 100 countries also agreed on a Global Methane Pledge, although none of the big emitters – including Russia and China – signed the declaration.
- Over $20 billion were committed to help transition to clean energy, while private financial institutions and central banks are moving to realign trillions towards global net zero.
- 137 nations signed the Declaration on Forests and Land Use, which aims to restore and protect natural habitats. With this pledge 91% of the world’s forest are covered.
- A strong rulebook was produced about implementation of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, after 6 years of negotiations. To further understand Article 6 and its impact to corporates click on the link.
This year, as we experience higher temperatures and more natural disasters impacting our planet, COP27 will urge countries to strengthen their targets and increase their ambition to reach the 1.5-degree goal. COP President Sameh Shoukry has asked the parties to put the current geopolitical tensions aside and engage on multilateral and collective talks to ensure good results. With all this, what should we expect from COP27? How will the African government lead this COP to accelerate climate action?
COP27: Adaptation left behind at Glasgow will be a priority of Sharm-el-Sheikh’s agenda
COP26 paved the way for further and accelerated talks on adaptation developing a two-year calendar to define an action plan, as well as closing the agreement to doble financing up to around $40 billion for adaptation. Biggest hope lies on COP27 to deliver an action plan ensuring finance from developed countries to those who need it the most.
Clarifying support on loss and damage, a decisive target for the Global South
The African continent accounts for only 3% of global emissions, however it is highly impacted by extreme natural disasters. Just this year, the south of Africa has suffered floods and storms like never before, while the Horn of Africa is going through a long-lasting drought.
On this regard, and to tackle the loss and damage that affects developing countries, last year, financing of loss and damage finally materialized thanks to the Glasgow Dialogue on Loss and Damage. Moreover, in June 2022, during the UN climate negotiations in Bonn, developing countries demanded higher financial contributions and more responsibility of developed countries for being higher carbon-emitting nations. This COP27 we should begin to see the formalization of the funding process and needs, as the Group 77 and China requested this topic to be on the agenda.
Discussing climate finance amid a global economic and energy crisis
Lastly, wealthy nations committed to provide $100 billion a year to developing countries in 2009. However, OECD calculations have demonstrated that the total contribution is about $17 billion short with a prevalence of loans, while grants should be prioritized for projects involving state. COP27 is expected to deliver an agreement to close the $17 billion gap but also to start dialogue on climate finance commitments beyond 2025. The priority for developing countries will be to ensure that future fundings will be grant-based rather loan-based. The climate finance segment will be essential in reinforcing trust between wealthy nations and global south where a significant number of countries are already facing the climate crisis.
Moving forward with Article 6 of the Paris Agreement
Last year COP26 managed to create a rule book for Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. This year, like with many different topics, it is time to set more rules and clarify more areas with regards to methodologies for applying corresponding adjustments to avoid doble counting. They will also have to define if avoidance credits are valid under the Article 6 mechanisms. The operational side of Article 6 (database, administrative infrastructure…) has to be created and the CDM phase out will also be part of the Article 6 negotiations.
COP27 should be a key opportunity for developing countries and fragile nations to set the stage on essential subjects for the future of climate action and a fair social transition – from adaptation to loss and damage and, finally, climate finance. However, the greatest challenge is to move from talks to implementation and commit to decisive and fast-forward actions for the future of our planet.
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