COP27 has opened in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, with the aim of continuing to reduce emissions and finalising details from COP26 in Glasgow. Following a year of record-breaking climate events, both in the UK and worldwide, the need to deliver urgent climate action is now essential. Significantly, there needs to be agreement over the level of financial aid to be given to countries already impacted by climate change, and this aid needs to be delivered.
What is COP27?
Climate summits take place every year, with over 200 countries, charities and non-governmental organisations represented. This is where global targets are made to limit global warming. Theses governments and organisations then return to their home countries to agree policy that will meet these global targets.
Although it is easy to be cynical and dismiss COP27 as empty political theatre – political theatre whose carbon footprint increases every year – there is an inherent opportunity within these climate summits. The planet is undeniably warming and each climate summit gives us the opportunity, with all the world’s leaders in the one room, to help put the fire out.
The UK hands over the presidency of COP
COP26 president Alok Sharma has now handed over responsibility of the presidency from the UK to Egypt, with the hope that the Glasgow Climate Pact will be used as an agreed pathway forward. In a recent COP26 press release Sharma said:
“The decade ahead can be one where we pull back from the precipice of climate catastrophe and unlock a just and sustainable path to prosperity for billions of people around the world. To do this we must fully deliver on the promises made at COP26 and in the Glasgow Climate Pact.”
Sharma also spoke frankly in Washington recently, where he described COP26 as a “fragile win”. He cautioned, “Climate catastrophes are becoming more frequent, and sadly they are becoming more ferocious. So the future that scientists and climate activists have long warned us about, and which has frankly been a reality for some of the most climate vulnerable countries for decades, is now a reality for many millions. It is a reality for us in this room”.
Sharma warned that although the “pulse of 1.5 degrees remained alive … the worst is yet to come”. He expressed deep concern, saying, “It is unfathomable to me that we are not doing everything in our power to respond to the inevitable structural changes that we are facing, and to prevent climate catastrophe”. But he remained optimistic when he argued that “the 21st century will not just be the century we pulled the world back from the precipice of climate catastrophe, it will be the century we unlocked a just and sustainable path to prosperity for billions of people around the world”.
International aims for COP
How and when we unlock this ‘just and sustainable’ path relies heavily on financial reparations. Professor Saleemul Huq, director at the International Centre for Climate Change and Development, told Yorkshire Bylines that in his view, the main aim was for COP27 to agree to set up a finance facility for loss and damage, with the understanding that details could be finalised in COP28.
He stressed that the international priority must be for all countries to raise their ambition to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and that developed countries must finally deliver the $100bn they promised every year to help developing countries tackle climate change.
Commenting on Rishi Sunak’s U-turn on attending COP27, and the attempts to forbid King Charles III from attending the summit, Professor Huq said these were an indication that the UK had abdicated its leadership on tackling climate change. In a forthright statement, he said that the UK had “gone downhill since hosting COP26 in Glasgow” last year.
The UK’s climate actions
Sunak is expected to make a grand announcement today as world leaders gather in Egypt. According to Politico, his speech will “set out tens of millions of pounds to help fight climate change, including £65 million for green tech innovation and £150 million for protecting rainforests and natural habitats. He will also call on world leaders to meet the promises made at the previous summit in Glasgow”.
There are two points to make here. Firstly, Sunak is currently offering 900 locations in the North Sea for oil and gas exploration – a narrative that demonstrates his commitment to fossil fuel extraction rather than helping fight climate change. Secondly, this grand political and financial pledge will quietly be reduced in the coming months.
Additionally, it is convenient that the announcement of the decision whether to go ahead with Cumbria’s coal mine – the first deep coal mine in the UK in 30 years – has been postponed until after COP27, suggesting that this will go ahead once the international focus has shifted away from climate change again, leaving only empty rhetoric and broken promises behind.
Countries are failing to meet their current pledges
In the recent United Nations Emissions Gap report, published by the United Nations Environment Programme, the conclusion was stark:
“The world is not on track to reach the Paris Agreement goals and global temperature can reach 2.8°C by the end of the century. The world must cut emissions by 45 per cent to avoid global catastrophe. Solutions to transform societies exist, but the time for collective, multilateral action is now.”
The emissions report criticised current commitments from countries, which fall far below the limits needed to limit global warming to even 2°C:
“Current commitments by countries as expressed in their unconditional and conditional [nationally determined contributions] for 2030 are estimated to reduce global emissions by 5 and 10 per cent respectively, compared with current policies and assuming that they are fully implemented. To get on track for limiting global warming to below 2.0°C and 1.5°C, global [greenhouse gas] emissions must be reduced by 30 and 45 per cent respectively, compared with current policy projections.”
Global greenhouse gas emissions are predicted to be even higher for 2021, potentially breaking the record 2019 level. The White House announced only days ago that, “Under President Biden, oil and natural gas production has increased, and we are on track to hit the highest production in our country’s history next year”.
Every fraction of a degree of global warming matters
There will certainly be climate and political headlines over the next two weeks as the negotiations at COP27 continue. Many will claim COP27 to be a failure before it is even concluded, or will stand on the side-lines and complain that their voices are not being heard.
It is vital to remember that amidst all this rhetoric and finger-pointing, the global average temperature continues to creep closer to 1.5°C higher than pre-industrial levels. If, or indeed when, this is missed, the next target with be 1.51°C, not 2°C. As UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres emphatically notes, “Every fraction of a degree of global warming matters”.
