COP27 - Recap
Written by Beatrice Bos
INTRODUCTION
In the last few weeks, it’s likely that you’ve heard about the COP27, but what is it and what does it do? Before digging up dirt on the latest climate agreements, let’s define a few terms and provide some historical context!
UNEP:
The United Nations Environmental Programme was founded in 1972, with the goal of monitoring the state of the environment and confirming policy-making is aligned with contemporary climate challenges.
At the 1992 conference in Rio de Janeiro, also known as Earth Summit, the UNEP members attending it signed the United Nations Framework for the Climate Change Conference, or UNFCCC.
The UNFCCC is an international treaty that defines the basic legal framework and principles for international collaboration aimed at tackling the climate crisis.
To help maintain the goals established in this treaty, it also instituted an annual meeting, the UN Convention on Climate Change.
COP:
COP stands for Conference of Parties, which is simply another name more commonly used for the Convention on Climate Change. These conferences are yearly climate summits that have been occurring since 1995. They are held in Bonn, Germany unless one of the Parties offers to host the session.
The “Parties” that can participate each year are the countries that have signed the UNFCCC; today, it’s been ratified nearly universally, with 198 countries having signed it (although that doesn’t mean that each year all the members participate).
Kyoto Protocol:
(https://unfccc.int/resource/docs/convkp/kpeng.pdf)
Established at COP3, held in Kyoto, Japan in 1997, it’s an international treaty aimed specifically at committing to the reduction of emissions of greenhouse gasses. It’s also the first addition to the UNFCCC.
Paris Agreement:
(https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/english_paris_agreement.pdf)
Another international treaty, and perhaps the most well-known, it was adopted by 196 parties in 2015, at the COP21, in Paris. Its main objective is to try to limit global warming to (preferably) 1,5 degrees Celsius and “well below” 2 degrees Celsius.
Since industrial times temperatures have risen around 1.1 degrees Celsius, meaning the treaty's substantial aim is to not allow warming over another 0.9 degrees Celsius.
Glasgow Pact:(https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/cma2021_10_add1_adv.pdf)
Last year’s COP (2021), COP26, was held in Glasgow, Scotland, where this pact was signed. The pact focused, respectively, on each of these areas: science and urgency, adaptation, adaptation finance, mitigation, finance, technology transfer and capacity-building for mitigation and adaptation, loss and damage, implementation, and collaboration.
Several of the topics discussed at this COP were addressed this year as well.
Most importantly, in this post, we’ll focus on COP27, the most recent COP. It was held in Sharm-el-Sheik, an Egyptian coastal town. Holding the COP there had symbolic relevance; the hope was to shed light on the difficulties that countries that don’t contribute as much to climate change face. The COP was meant to last from November 6 to November 18 but actually ended on November 20, as settling on certain agreements hadn’t been managed within that time frame.
DOES THE COP REALLY HAVE THAT BIG OF AN IMPACT?
The COP is the biggest climate summit of the year. It’s one of the major events in which participating world leaders are compelled to come together and determine substantial measures to take to withstand the climate crisis. It's also a platform for comparisons and negotiations which can lead to critical change on a global scale. This year, the COP hosted more than 100 Heads of government, and more than 35,0000 participants were given the chance to attend and advocate for proactive change. However, along with these advocates, more than 600 fossil fuel lobbyists attended, more than 6 times as many government representatives. The COP has also often been called out for greenwashing and encouraging a more moderate approach to facing the climate crisis, which many scientists and activists believe to be the wrong approach to such an imminent emergency. Nevertheless, it’s still the most relevant climate summit of the year, and its execution is critical to influencing climate change legislation at an international level.
OBJECTIVES AND OUTCOMES OF THE COP27
Every year, COP revolves around a few central themes, object to discussion and negotiation throughout the 2-week conference. Last year, many different topics were discussed: coal, methane emissions, deforestation, and more, making promises to phase out emissions and cut down deforestation rates by 2030 with regard to the central themes mentioned above.
However, the pledges made last year still leave us on track to hit 2,5 Celsius by the end of the century, which is remarkably over the optimal 1.5 Celsius. This would lead to disastrous consequences. Furthermore, we are expected to see an increase in emissions of 10,6% by 2030, and UN Climate Exchange Executive Secretary Simon Stiell emphasized that the actions we have promised to take now are absolutely insufficient.
Due to the alarmingly slow rate at which we are taking action, this year, the COP27 stressed the urgency of the climate crisis and disputed over the following motifs:
It was argued that countries should continue to “work hard” and that “bold and immediate actions'' should be taken to successfully hit the target instituted by the Paris Agreement
Countries should also be focusing not only on the “implementation” of last year’s and previous years’ agreements, but on the ”adaptation to the crisis” as well
Financial aid to “developing countries, especially African countries, least developed countries and small island developing states” should also be the main focus at a global level, and there should be “an improved transparency in the flow of finance” concerning these countries
The critical participation of all “relevant stakeholders”, which would be countries that suffer the effects of climate change the most, was also stressed upon
Several breakthroughs were made at this year’s COP:
The institution of a “loss and damage fund” was agreed upon, a breakthrough for countries that suffer the most from the effects of climate change while contributing virtually nothing compared to other countries.
COP27 saw the first “ high-level ministerial roundtable”, a meeting that will reoccur annually. It will provide an opportunity for heads of government to discuss further concrete actions that will help limit emissions to set us back on the path to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius
A program that has the aim to “accelerate the deployment of transformative climate technologies that are urgently required to tackle climate change” was launched
An initiative that would help implement actions targeted at halting deforestation was launched. 27 countries have joined this initiative, called Forest and Climate Leaders’ Partnership (FCLP), “representing over 60% of global GDP and 33% of the world’s forests”
SO WHAT NOW?
While major progress was made during this COP, to maintain the rising of temperatures to a favorable 1,5 degrees Celsius, we still have a long way to go. However, following these events and keeping ourselves informed on current climate legislation is one of the best ways to keep track of what actions are needed and what we, as citizens of these governments, must demand from our representatives.
Speaking up and demanding action is one of the only tools we have to influence legislation, and therefore it is critical to keep ourselves informed on important events like COP, as well as other fundamental events in climate legislation. Together, with the help of our government representatives, we can make our voices heard and push for radical climate action: this is the only way we can contribute to systemic change.
