It’s now been a year since Glasgow hosted the world’s largest (and arguably most important) international environmental summit, COP26 (standing for ‘Conference of Parties’).
I think my coat has just about dried off from marching around Glasgow in the torrential rain.
For anyone interested in sustainability - for anyone reading this article - it seems unfathomable that the recent COP27 negotiations held in Egypt could’ve fallen off your radar. However, these climate negotiations often bring with them a lot of complex vocabulary, confusing terms, and debate over the achievements made, so let’s unpack that.
The COP26 President Alok Sharma praised the level of cooperation involved in this year’s negotiations - “200 members, 120 countries… and 80 institutions” (GOV.UK, 2022). COPs are a melting pot of actors involved in international environemtnal actors, from governments and private businesses to Non-Governmetnal Organisations, each with valuable insight and interests in environmental progress. With so much expertise in one place, a lot of pressure and hope is placed on the decisions made and actions arising from COP.
So what were the key features of this conference, picking up from where we ended in Glasgow?
1.5℃ global warming limits.
In the past year, further research has been produced confirming fears that we are essentially past reaching the threshold of keeping global atmospheric warming under 1.5℃. However, the ‘spirit of‘1.5℃’ as a unifying goal was nonetheless central to negotiations at COP27. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) argues that “transformative systemic change” (IPCC, 2018) is required to sufficiently reduce emissions and maintain a reasonable global temperature, yet COP27 was characterised by mitigation of global warming effects, instead of action to avoid such warming in the first place.
Loss and damage fund.
In light of catastrophic flooding in Pakistan we’ve seen in recent years, the international community can no longer ignore the tangible impacts of climate change. It is no longer possible to simply talk of global warming as a far off phenomenon, just as the massive investment and systems change we need can no longer be procrastinated.
The response taken by COP27 is the formation of a loss and damage fund. This poster child of the negotiations involves a communal collection of funds, which climate disaster striken countries can use to rebuild necessary infrastructure.
The significance of this loss and damage fund derives from the international power dynamic of environmental negotiations which is increasingly in favour of developing countries.
As a sustainable development student, I can’t help but bring in the principle of ‘common but differentiated responsibilities’, in which those with greater political and economic capacity to shoulder the burden of climate mitigation do so. The goal of all states remains one of reducing climate change, but with greater awareness of global wealth disparity. The loss and damage fund also sends a clear message that the impact of environmental damage will not be felt evenly. It may be easier to ignore the threat of climate change in countries such as the UK where the threat of sea level rise hasn’t crept up on us as much as elsewhere.
For example, I’d highly recommend watching the COP26 speech by a minister on the Pacific island state of Tuvalu, delivered as he stands thigh-deep in the sea, starkly demonstrating the threat of sea levels for his country.
Changing of the guard?
Domestic changes to some of the world’s most prominent environmental players in the past year hint towards more sustainable policies and the potential for greater cooperation.
The defeat of Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro this year brought much relief to the international environmental community. As the leader of a country with enormous natural resources (namely the Amazon rainforest), Bolsonaro’s domestic environmental policies had ripple effects accross the world. His replacement by the incoming Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva marked a turning point with Brazil “back in the world” to quote Lula himself at COP27 (Independent, 2022). The hope in environmentalist circles is that he’ll reverse the plans for oil and gas expansion across the country - we’ll have to wait and see his impact once his presidency begins, but the overarching message is that this shift in Brazil is promising for the rest of the world too.
Prominence of fossil fuel companies.
It’s the elephant in the room at COP27. Last year, representatives of the fossil fuel industry collectively made up the largest delegation at COP - larger than any of the national delegations these industry members operate through.
In a year when the Russian invasion of Ukraine has revealed the insecurity and dependence of many states on fossil fuels, it’s not unreasonable to question why the renewable energy sector doesn’t have more of a say in these climate negotiations. The short answer is that for as long as countries are at the centre of the discussion, the fossil fuels lobbies are likely to follow.
It’s also worth noting that only 34% of delegates in Egypt were female - a decrease from last year. With women disproportionately impacted by the effects of climate change (BBC, 2022), a lack of women’s voices at the negotiating table is concerning, and the interests of minority social groups also risk being overlooked.
Furthermore, the Egypt authorities have been accused of human rights breaches, such as limits on freedom of expression and association, as well as arbitrary deterntion. A question should be asked over whether countries with such human rights records should be given the responsibility of hosting global climate negotiations. This question was largely overshadowed by the controversy around the current World Cup hosted in Qatar - another country with a poor human rights record, in the spotlight for hosting a global event. Does football deserve more attention than COP27? I’ll leave that up to you…
Holly Derrett, 1st December 2022
References:
BBC News (2022) Climate change: Five key takeaways from COP27 https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-63693738
BBC News (2022) COP27: lack of women at negotiations raises concern https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-63636435
GOV.UK (2022) COP26 President Alok Sharma speech at COP27: Delivering on Ambitious Climate Commitments. https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/cop26-president-alok-sharma-speech-at-cop27-delivering-on-ambitious-climate-commitments
Guardian (2021) 'We are sinking': Tuvalu minister gives Cop26 speech standing in water to highlight sea level rise https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBBsv0QyscE
Independent (2022) ‘Brazil is back in the world’: President-elect Lula gets rock-star welcome at Cop27 and vows to save Amazon https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/lula-cop27-brazil-amazon-oil-b2226404.html