Key Outcomes That COP27 Needs To Achieve

After a year of extreme weather and climate crises, expectations are high of the United Nations Climate Conference (COP27). Business leaders, politicians, state and non-state actors, climate change champions and journalists will participate in COP27 which is to be held at Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt this November. While COP26 held in 2021 ended on a seemingly positive note with some promising headlines on carbon offsets, financing, coal, and deforestation, it failed to offer any tangible action needed to avoid the wrath of climate change. 

As a result, there is much hope for COP27 to close this gap and bring more accountability, action and implementation to the table. Egypt’s COP27 presidency acknowledges that the first order of business is to move from negotiations and planning to implementation. To understand, how the presidency aims to harmonize global efforts more towards action, it’s important to note the agenda:

The Agenda At COP27

This is the fifth time a COP is being held in Africa and this year too, the conference days are marked for a specific theme or agenda. Some of the key themes in focus include finance, decarbonization, science, adaptation, agriculture, gender, water, biodiversity, youth and future generations among many others. 

Decarbonization  in particular holds much relevance to businesses as it delves deep into hard-to-abate sectors like cement, steel, fertilizers and the talk on the global methane pledge signed in COP26.

There is a special interest in COP27 because of the unique opportunity to understand the specific circumstances and needs of Africa as a whole. But to be truly effective and show tangible progress, there are some key outcomes that COP27 needs to achieve. 

• Reverse and end deforestation 

One of the key outcomes at COP26 was The Glasgow Forest Declaration which made a pledge to  “halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030”.

Regardless of this global commitment, deforestation rates of the primary tropical forests are yet to see any signs of abating. Unfortunately 3.75 million hectares were lost to deforestation across the key tropical forests in 2021. 

There is not enough action from businesses investing in reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation projects. This underlines the need for companies investing in reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation projects. 

The warning from IPCC is clear. It is impossible to meet the below 1.5 degree mandate without ending deforestation and forest degradation. There is an urgent need to monitor and address the funding of deforestation and the money pipeline that is driving further damage. For example, reports show that banks and asset managers based in some of the developed nations made deals worth nearly  $157 billion to 20 agricultural businesses that are implicated in deforestation.  This is because agricultural expansion is one of the leading drivers of deforestation.

There are high hopes from the Forests and Climate Leaders’ Partnership (FCLP) participating in COP27. The FCLP can and should rightly put pressure on all nations to stick to their commitments and take staunch action on forest risk commodities. 

The most important commitment and single greatest action in protecting forests needs to come from the private sector.

• Article 6 

Article 6 of the Paris Agreement was one of the key outcomes of COP26. Article 6 pertains to carbon markets which are a very important tool to achieve international climate goals. Article 6 enables countries to collaborate and help each other to achieve the emission reduction targets set out in their NDC. Using this arrangement a country can transfer their carbon credits to other countries to help them achieve their targets. 

Corresponding Adjustments (CA)s are the techniques used to adjust GHG emissions inventory so that double counting does not happen and only one country is granted the carbon credits.

Unfortunately, there is no standardized way for host countries to create CAs. Article 6 and Corresponding Adjustments needs more clarity so that countries entering bilateral agreements follow standard protocol and accelerate global mitigation activities. The role of CAs and their standardization in the voluntary carbon market needs to be clarified so there is a better understanding on how to use carbon offsets, and how to buy carbon credits. 

More details and analysis are awaited on Article 6 to help operationalize carbon market mechanisms. These will be instrumental in helping countries to double down on their mitigation efforts.

• Loss and damage funding

Loss and damage funding has been a long-standing demand of vulnerable and developing nations. It is designed as a means to help highly vulnerable areas and communities that are suffering from the extremities of climate change. While the issue was pushed in COP26 by developing countries, the developed block steered the dialogue away to the last day, leading to no concrete discussions. 

Loss and damage funding will be formally discussed at COP27 including the modalities of the process. While there is no guarantee that talks around loss and damage will ensure compensation, it will at least open up a dialogue and help to arrive at a decision before 2024, according to President Sameh Shoukry. 

The expectation from COP27 is to establish a loss and damage finance facility with a dedicated fund. To formally launch the Santiago Network on Loss and Damage, countries will need to achieve a consensus. As observed over the years, mitigation and adaptation finance is not adequate, loss and damage finance will empower developing nations to cope with the impact of climate change.

• Advance the Global Stocktake 

The Paris Agreement saw the global Stocktake, a stock-taking process undertaken every 5 years to evaluate collective progress toward long-term goals. The first Global Stocktake took place in COP26 and will culminate in COP28. However, COP27 will play a crucial role in carrying on dialogues for countries and other actors to submit information that can feed into the process.

The Global Stocktake will need to advance the technical assessment of the progress towards Paris Agreement’s goals before concluding at COP28 with a political package to drive forward action. All eyes are on COP27 now to help shape the Stocktake’s direction by offering the forum for countries, non-state actors and experts to develop a common vision. Nations in parul

• Convert Glasgow climate commitments into action.

In COP26, governments, businesses and other actors made a number or pledges to curb methane emissions, reduce carbon footprint, halt forest loss, align the finance sector with net-zero by 2050, double 2019 levels of adaptation finance by 2025, scale locally led adaptation, accelerate the phase out of coal, just to name a few. However, without concrete action and evidence, these simply remain empty promises. At COP27, those who have announced these ambitious targets or joined initiatives must report on the progress to date and share their learnings. Governments in particular must share where they have succeeded and where they have not made progress.

Success at COP27

COP27 takes place against the backdrop of a highly volatile and turbulent world, but it offers the potential to foster greater cooperation, more action and sustainable results, provided we move from lofty ideals to action and implementation. 

Article source: https://article-realm.com/article/Business/Ethics/31869-Key-Outcomes-That-COP27-Needs-To-Achieve.html