The COP events are curated by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to bring global leaders together to share their emission reduction plans and policies for environmental protection and progress. Attendees vary across world leaders, environmental ministers, NGOs, city and town representatives, businesses, non-state actors, citizens’ groups and more.
COP26, which was attended by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson on behalf of the UK, seemed to have been greeted with far more political energy and commitment than this year’s event. Given the turbulence of the last nine months, world leaders may have shifted their focus to energy security and geopolitical crises.
One of the key outcomes of COP26 was the Glasgow Climate Pact which outlined a series of agreed commitments to build climate resilience and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with plans to finance these ambitions. The plan also took aim at closing the gap between existing emission reduction plans and what is actually required to tackle the global rise in temperature to no more than 1.5C; the temperature that scientists have warned would lead to “climate catastrophe” if surpassed.
Following this, for the first time, there was a commitment to “phase down unabated coal power and inefficient subsidies for fossil fuels.” Coal is responsible for about 40 per cent of annual CO2 emissions, so an explicit plan to reduce reliance on coal had been long overdue. Climate groups expressed concern that the plan only mentions “phasing down” rather than “phasing out” coal.
Other developments included an agreement between the world’s biggest CO2 emitters, the US and China, which was a pledge to cooperate more over the coming decade. Though the pledge could be construed as somewhat vague, China had been very reluctant to tackle domestic emissions in the past. A scheme to reduce methane emissions by 30% by 2030 was also agreed at COP26, as well as an agreement to stop deforestation by 2030, phase out fossil fuel subsidies that artificially lower oil, coal, and natural gas prices, and the development of a trillion dollar a year fund from 2025 to help developing countries tackle climate change.
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The event was hit with early criticism over a sponsorship deal with Coca-Cola, the world’s biggest plastic polluter who single-handedly create 2.9 million tonnes of plastic every year.
Elsewhere, UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres warned that without a historic pact between developed and developing nations committing to climate resolutions, “we will be doomed.” This has dominated coverage of the Summit so far, and the dynamic between developed and developing nations, the ways that relationships can be strengthened, and whether remuneration is owed, will undoubtedly be priorities over the coming days.
However, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a widespread cost of living crisis, and seemingly inevitable recession, COP27 will be taking place in the midst of the worst geopolitical tensions we have seen in years. Some developing nations have claimed that richer, developed nations have caused the climate crisis and failed to deliver on the plans dictated by the 2015 Paris Agreement. Paris 2015 saw developing nations accept that they too must reduce emissions in order to tackle the climate crisis and that developed world would help fund these efforts. No doubt the delay in providing the $100bn a year promised will be an increasing source of contention.
There is also increasing pressure on developed countries to settle on a funding mechanism designed to compensate nations like Pakistan, which experienced excessive floods this year, for the damage climate change is already causing. It is unlikely that Europe and the US will be willing to commit to a climate fund in aid of developing nations when they’re facing stark recessions and cost of living crises themselves.
Nature-based solutions, water infrastructure, and biodiversity will also receive some attention at COP27, particularly in relation to land rights and an end to deforestation. However, the UN also run an annual event on biodiversity, which will be taking place in Montreal this December as COP15. This is where more concrete commitments will be made in the interest of restoring nature, promoting biodiversity and preventing extinctions.
The current economic and geopolitical state of the world has left a fog over this year’s COP, but with increasing pressure from developing nations on the developed world to do more to protect our planet, and with the world’s biggest emitters, China and the US, improving in terms of cooperation, there are still reasons to be hopeful that the event will facilitate positive change.