The five keys left by the COP27 climate summit

The financing of loss and damage has been the central axis of the negotiation

The COP27 climate summit has had many chiaroscuros, where the word implementation has been a repeated key, and the fight against climate change does not seem to have found the right way out of the “highway to hell” in which, according to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, we are on track.

In Sharm el Sheikh (Egypt) there have been presences, but also absences of leaders, such as those of Russia and China. However, the image that has remained is that of the creation of a fund for the most vulnerable countries affected by climate change, although climate ambition has been set aside. Therefore, talks on key points to fight climate change will travel by plane to Dubai, host of COP28, which is scheduled for the end of November 2023. These are the five keys that have been experienced at COP27:

1. Loss and Damage. The financing of loss and damage has been central during the negotiations: the Egyptian presidency included on the agenda, for the first time in the history of a climate summit, the point of how to finance compensation to the most vulnerable countries due to the effects of climate change by developed countries, considered historically responsible for emissions.

This pillar has been the biggest headache for the parties to the United Nations convention. A new fund or making use of existing institutions, “mosaics” of measures, who should contribute and who should benefit were the issues in dispute. In the end, the EU proposal has been chosen, with the call to development banks and other institutions, which opens the door to countries such as China or Saudi Arabia, so that they are also the ones who contribute money for the new fund.

2. Brazil is back. The intervention of Brazilian President-elect Lula da Silva raised expectations, announcing to the world that “Brazil is back” in the global fight against climate change. His country, the biggest custodian of the Amazon rainforest, was returning after four years of a “disastrous government” that plunged the country into “climate denialism,” according to the Brazilian leader, who proposed that the 2025 summit be held in the Brazilian Amazon.

3. The loss of trust between North and South. Trust between the two sides has cracked, referring to “developed and emerging economies,” as the latter have required more action and accountability from the rich to pay the consequences of climate change.

4. Human Rights. “Without human rights there is no climate justice,” the summit repeated, with a special remembrance of Egyptian-British pro-democracy activist Alaa Abdel Fattah. COP27 has been harshly criticized for “greenwashing” as it takes place in Egypt where tens of thousands of people, according to NGOs, are imprisoned for expressing their political opinions.

5. There is no money. The backdrop to this summit has been an energy crisis, caused by the invasion of Ukraine, which has led to a period of inflation and may lead to a recession in the coming months.

NGO dissatisfaction with the outcome

The international coalition of NGOs united in the 350.org movement has denounced that the results of the climate summit “pave the way for the continued expansion of fossil fuels and the increase of climate impacts”, which threatens the results of the fund for losses and damages. For this group it was going to be the COP of implementation, but the strong influences of the fossil fuel industry, and some countries “have not been fulfilled”.

Source: Five Days