Climate summit COP27 has been underway in Sharm-El-Sheikh, Egypt. 45,000 people from 196 countries are halfway through their two weeks of talks on the climate crisis.

Climate summit COP27 has been underway in Sharm-El-Sheikh, Egypt. 45,000 people from 196 countries are halfway through their two weeks of talks on the climate crisis. The summit, hosting world leaders, takes place in a context of irreversible climate damage.

 

The State of the Planet

 

The Global Carbon Budget 2022 report stated that:

• Global fossil CO2 emissions increased in 2022, now being slightly above pre-COVID19 pandemic 2019 levels.

• Emissions from coal, oil, and gas in 2022 are expected to be above their 2021 levels (by 1.0 %, 2.2 % and −0.2 % respectively).

• Regionally, emissions in 2022 are expected to have decreased by 0.9 % in China and 0.8% in the EU, but increased 1.5% in the US, 6% in India and 1.7% in the rest of the world.

UN experts have said human-induced climate change is the largest, most pervasive threat to the natural environment and societies the world has ever experienced, and the poorest countries are paying the heaviest price. The UN’s environment agency said in October that there is “no credible pathway to 1.5C in place”, referring to the pledges by countries and cuts needed to limit any rise in global temperature to 1.5C. Current pledges for action by 2030, if delivered in full, would mean a rise in global heating of about 2.5C, which would bring further devastation across the globe. This year has seen a spur of climate-induced disasters; extreme flooding across India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, the highest temperatures ever recorded across Europe, deadly floods in Nigeria, and hurricanes across America.

COP27 So Far

Here is a brief summary of the key events and takeaways of the last week of COP27:

 

Smaller nations that emit less and are more vulnerable to climate change demand more financial support from large polluters.

 

• The need for large polluting countries and businesses to offer more financial support was stressed, given they contribute the most to the worsening climate.

• The statistics show a huge disparity in the responsibility for emissions; the richest 10% of the global population emits nearly half of global emissions, the top 1% emits 17% of the total, whereas the poorest half of the population emits only 12% of global emissions (2019 data, World Inequality Database).

• Wyoming, for example, emits 3.7 times the amount of CO2 than Kenya, despite Kenya’s population being 95 times higher than Wyoming. Africa has 16.7% of the world’s population but historically only emits 3% of global carbon pollution.

• The Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Gaston Called for fossil fuel companies to be taxed more heavily to cover the cost of the environmental damage they cause.

Overconsumption is the problem, not overpopulation

 

• The world’s population this week reached 8 billion people, and inevitably this has an impact on the climate, but is not the damning cause of climate change as many think.

• Overproduction is the production of goods that exceeds the needs of the consumers who are consuming them, stripping the planet of its natural resources such as forests, soil and minerals, and water. In the last decade, overproduction and

• The world’s population this week reached 8 billion people, and inevitably this has an impact on the climate, but is not the damning cause of climate change as many think.

• Overproduction is the production of goods that exceeds the needs of the consumers who are consuming them, stripping the planet of its natural resources such as forests, soil and minerals, and water. In the last decade, overproduction and

 

The EU raises its target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions

• The EU updated its climate pledges, with plans to cut emissions by 57% by 2030.

• This pledge is part of the Fit for 55 package aiming to make the EU bloc carbon neutral by 2050.

• One example of a measure to be taken to reach this goal is increased investment in electric cars. As of 2035, all new cars in the EU will be required to be zero-emissions. 

• However, given that UN scientists have warned it’s too late to keep global warming below the 1.5C pledge of the Paris Agreement, campaigners say the EU should raise its targets to 65%.

Activists have made their voices heard

• The Russian Federation’s event was disrupted by protestors who repeatedly shouted “you are war criminals.” Russia is the second biggest oil and gas producer in the world, yet the role of fossil fuels was not mentioned at all by the six men compromising the Russia panel.

• A march was held inside the COP27 centre in Egypt, with hundreds of people protesting in the Blue Zone, an area cordoned off and reserved for official proceedings. The protest was held in the conference area as the Egyptian authorities would not allow it to take place on the streets. This put Egypt’s poor human rights record in the spotlight, as it became clear that the democratic right of protest would be stifled or contained.

• Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate condemned world leaders for continuing to support new fossil fuel projects despite the overwhelming evidence that extracting and burning more fossil fuels exacerbates climate chaos. There are 600 or so fossil fuel lobbyists attending the conference, which speaks for itself. Nakate said, “You are sowing the wind and frontline communities are reaping the whirlwind. The focus for many leaders is about making deals for fossil fuel lobbyists, surviving the next election cycle, and grabbing as much short-term profit as possible.”

• Nakate cited the International Energy Agency's 2021 blueprint for achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, which made clear that investment in new fossil fuel projects is incompatible with meeting the Paris agreement's goal of capping temperature rise at 1.5°C above pre industrial levels.

Some countries are still resisting major change and the issue of financing Loss and Damage

• Loss and Damage refers to the impacts of climate change that cannot be adapted to, such as sea level rise, loss of arable land, groundwater salinity and biodiversity loss. 

• There is the demand for richer nations to set up mechanisms for financing Loss and Damage funds, but they are resisting these calls fearing it will open the floodgates for compensation claims.

• Bloomberg reports that a draft text released on Monday evening gave the conference two possible options. “The first, likely to be harder for the industrialised world to accept, would commit to establishing a loss and damage fund by late 2024. The second proposes two years of technical work on whether the issue should ultimately be addressed through a “mosaic” of funding arrangements.”

• The Alliance of Small Island States has said it is a “red line” and the bare minimum will be to reach an agreement to establish a Loss and Damage facility by the end of COP27. 

More needs to be done to combat greenwashing

• Greenwashing is defined as disinformation disseminated by an organisation so as to present an environmentally responsible public image.

• Coca Cola had been previously announced as a COP27 sponsor, an attempt to gloss over the company’s large carbon footprint. Coca Cola is the world’s biggest plastic polluter, for five years in a row. 

• The UN Secretary General established a High-Level Expert Group on the Net-Zero Emissions Commitments of Non-State Entities in March 2022. COP27 heard recommendations from the group, chaired by former Canadian environment minister Catherine McKenna.

• They proposed ten standards and criteria that organisations claiming to be net zero should be, such as emissions reductions should cover all emissions (including those from organisations’ supply chains), and that businesses should produce detailed transition plans showing how capital spend is aligned with emissions reductions.

• Companies should also not claim to be net zero while expanding fossil-fuel or deforestation activities, or while lobbying against climate action, and should use offsets only if they are already cutting emissions—and if these are high-quality offsets. 

• There is a huge gap between aim and action: more than one-third (702) of the world’s largest publicly traded companies have some sort of net-zero target in place, yet 65% of those companies are not meeting the minimal reporting protocols that exist. 

 

(Sources: Reuters, The Guardian, WID, NetImpact, Earth System Science Data, Carbon Brief, Euronews, Common Dreams, Bloomberg, Economist Impact, Inside Climate News)