A report by Robert Youngberg, ISES Board of Directors, Professional Silver Member & Dave Renné – ISES Immediate Past President UNFCCC COP 27 - Egypt The 27th session of the Conference of Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) was held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt from November 6-18. The COP brings together the 193 signatories of the 2015 Paris Agreement to take action towards achieving the world’s collective climate goals to mitigate global warming to 2 0C, and ideally no more than 1.5C, above preindustrial levels. Building on the outcomes and momentum of COP 26 in Glasgow, nations were expected to demonstrate at COP 27 that they are turning their commitments under the Paris Agreement into action. The delegates came together to discuss, negotiate, and renew their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to address climate change.
Key, and Missing Outcomes of the COP The concept of Loss and Damages became the key negotiating point at COP 27. The Executive Committee (ExCom) of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage was established at COP 19 to guide the implementation of the mechanism. COP 27 committed to creating a Loss and Damage (L&D) fund that, if details can be worked out at future negotiations, will provide aid to vulnerable countries impacted by the irreversible harms of global warming caused by the historic GHG emissions from developed countries. This agreement is viewed as a significant achievement - a deal that was clearly in question before the start of the Conference. However, determining the amount and type of aid, which developed countries should pay to underdeveloped countries, will be a long and arduous process. Despite the success of the L&D negotiation, a major failure of COP 27 was the lack of agreement on phasing down all fossil fuels and building on emissions-cutting commitments made at last year’s UNFCCC summit in Glasgow. No new accord was adopted that increases ambitions on lowering emissions or taking new steps to preserve the 1.5 0C global warming limit. Strikingly, the use of renewable energy as a mitigation strategy seemed almost forgotten in this year’s final negotiations. In fact, the focus of the delegate negotiations, and the ‘COP EXPO’ pavilions and side event presentations was primarily on climate change adaptation, a just energy transition, the social and economic impacts of climate charge, and climate-driven migrations of affected people. While adaptation measures are important and necessary, the critical focus must be on mitigation and abatement of CO2 and other GHG emissions with ongoing major implementation of renewable energy technologies playing the key role.
ISES Activities at COP 27 Robert Youngberg, ISES Board of Directors, served ISES as the Observer Delegate at COP 27 working on several events in which ISES, collaborating with its partners, played a key role.
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