IRIA News

More than 100 world leaders have started arriving in Egypt for the UN’s annual climate change summit COP27 to discuss pressing climate challenges ranging from climate reparations and adaptation to cutting harmful greenhouse gas emissions. 

Delegates from early 200 countries will be attending the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP27) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, from November 7-18. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Macron, and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak were among the top leaders who attended the inaugural while U.S. President Joe Biden is due to appear later on. The most visibly absent were the leaders of China and India.

The summit focuses on turning climate pledges into climate action in pursuit of net-zero emissions, enhanced resilience for the most vulnerable, and meeting the Paris Agreement goal of limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of this century. 

“COP27 is an opportunity to showcase unity against an existential threat that we can only overcome through concerted action and effective implementation,” said Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. He added that Egypt would ensure that COP27 becomes the moment “when the world moved from negotiation to implementation and where words were translated to actions.”

The COP27 summit is happening near the end of a year that has seen devastating floods and unprecedented heat waves, wildfires, droughts, storms, and climate emergencies in Africa, China, Pakistan, Europe, and the United States. Millions are also confronting the impacts of crises in energy, food, water, and cost of living, aggravated by conflicts.

‘Loss and Damage’ compensation tops the agenda

For the first time, developing nations succeeded in getting the issue of “loss and damage” onto the summit agenda as low-emitting countries inundated with floods or watching their islands sink into the ocean are demanding that developed and high-emissions countries pay up for the climate-fueled disasters. But the issue has remained stalled for years. The large polluters, European Union, U.S., and UK, have blocked a proposal to establish a fund at last year’s UN climate talks and instead agreed to a dialogue without a clear end goal.

Pakistan, which is still reeling from the unprecedented rains and floods that killed more than 1,700 people this year, demanded urgent action on loss and damage funding to meet the pressing humanitarian needs. “We have been talking for years. But have failed to even agree on the basics. Pledges made at the Copenhagen COP15 in 2009 for mobilizing $100 billion per annum by 2020 have still not been realized. They need to be enhanced given the increased frequency and intensity of climate extreme events,” said Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in his statement at COP27.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also urged the international community to “massively” help flood-hit Pakistan in a joint press briefing with the Pakistani prime minister. “If there is any doubt about loss and damage, go to Pakistan. There is loss and there is damage,” Guterres told the briefing. He urged that the COP needs to find a clear roadmap, including the creation of an institutional framework and financing to compensate the country.

Developing and emerging countries except China will need $2 trillion a year by 2030 to cope with climate breakdown, according to the UN-backed report ‘Finance for Climate Action’.

The world must choose between the ‘Climate Solidarity Pact or Suicide Pact’

“Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish. It is either a Climate Solidarity Pact – or a Collective Suicide Pact,” the UN Secretary-General told world leaders at the opening of COP27. He warned that “we are on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator”, urging the two biggest polluting countries, the United States and China, to join efforts to avert climate chaos and meet goals. Guterres called for a historic pact between developed and developing countries to combine capacities and pivot the world towards reducing carbon emissions, transforming energy systems, and avoiding a climate catastrophe.

New Zealand, Germany, and Austria announce funds

Five European countries, Austria, Germany, Scotland, Belgium, and Denmark, have committed to funding the loss and damage finance mechanism.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said his country would provide €170 million for a global shield initiative that aims to support the most climate-vulnerable countries. Austria announced €50m for climate loss and damage to tackle loss and damage over the next four years. Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced £5 million of funding at the COP27 climate summit, taking the country’s commitment to address loss and damage caused by the climate crisis to £7 million. Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said that his country would donate €10m to the Global Shield initiative for 2023 to scale up finance needed to protect against climate risks.

Belgium pledged 2.5 million euros as part of a 25-million-euro package of climate-related support for the southern African country of Mozambique. Denmark has committed 100 million Danish crowns (13 million euros) with a focus on fragile areas including the Sahel region in Africa. New Zealand has also announced a NZ$20 million (US$12 million) climate fund for land and resources lost by developing countries to the effects of the climate crisis.

Fundings so far:

• Germany – 170 million euros
• Austria – 50 million euros
• Scotland – 7 million pounds
• Belgium – 2.5 million euros
• Denmark – 13 million euros
• New Zealand – US$12 million

UK to triple funding for climate adaptation

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has confirmed the UK is tripling its funding to help nations adapt to the impacts of climate change. In his national address at the climate summit, Sunak will triple funding on climate adaptation to £1.5 billion ($1.7 billion) by 2025 from £500 million in 2019. “Instead of developing countries being unfairly burdened with the carbon debt of richer nations and, somehow expected to forgo that same path to growth, we are helping those countries deliver their own fast track to clean growth,” Sunak said.

Saudi Arabia commits $2.5bn to Middle East green initiative

Saudi Arabia will contribute $2.5 billion in support of the Middle East Green Initiative over the next ten years, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman said during the COP27 climate summit. “With concerted regional efforts, the initiative seeks to support efforts and cooperation in the region to reduce and eliminate emissions by more than 670 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent,” he said. The Green Middle East Summit, first announced in October 2021, aims to plant 50 billion trees in the region and reduce the region’s carbon emissions by more than 10 percent.

UAE and Egypt agree to build one of the world’s biggest wind farms

On the sidelines of COP27, UAE and Egypt signed an agreement to develop one of the world’s largest onshore wind projects in Egypt. The deal was signed between the UAE’s renewable energy firm Masdar and Egypt’s main renewable energy developer Infinity and Hassan Allam Utilities. “The UAE and Masdar will continue to support Egypt’s net-zero goals and we will endeavor to take forward the gains made here at COP27 as the UAE prepares to host COP28 next year,” said Masdar Chairman Sultan al-Jaber. The UAE is hosting the COP28 summit next year.