Keys to understand COP27 and its role in the climate emergency

The 27th Conference of the Parties (COP27) of the United Nations on Climate Change is held between November 6 and 18 in Egypt in a context marked by the prevalence of extreme weather events around the world, the energy crisis resulting from the war in Ukraine and the scientific consensus of that the Paris Agreement will be difficult to achieve if we continue with the current rate of emissions.

After last year’s summit in Glasgow, the different countries agreed to reach specific commitments to respond to the climate crisis and update their national mitigation and adaptation plans with more ambitious measures adjusted to the scale of the problem. However, only 23 of 193 countries have updated their plans.

What challenges does this year have?

The presidency of the COP27 hopes that this summit will serve to “move from the negotiations to the planning of the application of the promises and commitments made”.

In addition, it is expected that the conference will serve to reach important agreements on international financing for the fight against climate change. An intense negotiation is expected on the payments known as “loss and damages”. These payments would be a measure of compensation to the developing countries, which suffer the most from the disasters caused by climate change, by the rich countries, the largest emitters of greenhouse gases.

Relationship between COP27 and the 2030 Agenda

On September 25, 2015, world leaders from 193 countries defined the 2030 agenda, made up of 17 interrelated Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that represent a call from the United Nations Organization to transform our world towards prosperity. global people and planet.

With this ambitious goal as a backdrop, it is more than evident that climate change plays a fundamental role in all the SDGs, which makes it impossible to address the 2030 agenda without decisively combating the climate crisis. As an example, recent scientific work quantifies the enormous impact of climate change on human health and well-being (Goal 3).

The challenge of COP27 is to adopt more ambitious measures to deal with the climate emergency, directly aligning with objective 13 (“climate action”). The success of these measures will not be possible without an acceleration towards “clean energy” (goal 7), “sustainable cities” (goal 11) and, above all, “sustainable production and consumption” (goal 12).

On the other hand, it should be noted that climate change does not affect all countries equally. The most negative impacts affect developing countries. Even within the same city, the negative effects of, for example, heat waves vary depending on the socioeconomic level of the people. For this reason, the achievement of other objectives such as the “end of poverty” (objective 1) or the “reduction of inequalities” (objective 10) are a chimera without a determined and effective fight against climate change, which implies a fair financing between countries.

Therefore, the relationship between COP27 and the 2030 Agenda is key to understanding that global development will either be sustainable from the climate point of view or it will simply not be possible.

What lessons does this type of encounter leave?

COPs bring together heads of state, ministers and negotiators, climate activists, mayors, civil society representatives and CEOs. It is the most important annual meeting on global climate action.

By bringing together a broad set of partners and stakeholders, this type of meeting can serve to accelerate public and private investment in concrete projects and initiatives towards sustainable energy transition throughout the planet and establish decisive political actions that reduce the current gap in economic and financial flows, addressing existing financing and debt challenges.

From an environmental point of view, the agreements that are reached on many occasions are minimal, insufficient, given the magnitude of the climate crisis, as noted in the latest IPCC report.

In addition, these agreements come after long and tense negotiations between countries. All this contributes to the feeling that these summits are of little use and that there are more words than deeds. However, these agreements are very valuable as they are mostly produced by consensus and are binding on all signatories.

Perhaps a first lesson is that the COP serves to advance in the fight against climate change, but we cannot expect miracles.

On the other hand, there is an increasing coverage of the summits in the media, which reflects a greater social interest.

In addition, summit after summit, the activities carried out in the so-called green zone take on more prominence. This area is a meeting place for dialogue between representatives of civil society such as youth associations, business associations, NGOs or representatives of academia. This fact highlights the growing awareness of citizens about the climate crisis and the need to take urgent and effective measures in the fight against climate change.

On this occasion, taking advantage of the location of COP27 in Egypt, specific sessions dedicated to Africa will be assigned, with the aim of promoting solutions and opportunities for the continent with the greatest challenges in climate vulnerability.

The role of citizenship

We are at a point of no return. The scientific community has already warned that the goal of keeping the temperature below 1.5 ℃ is unrealistic and that the current commitments between now and 2030 lead us to an increase of about 2.5 ℃, something catastrophic for our future. Let’s not forget that 1℃ warming has pushed us past some dangerous tipping points.

Climate action requires individual measures aimed at sustainability, so social awareness is extremely important.

In this context, citizens must be aware that maintaining the consumption of fossil fuels is incompatible with mitigating the climate crisis. This implies a change in our lifestyle and socioeconomic model that will probably go through a decrease.

As responsible citizens we must reduce our carbon footprint, reduce our consumption, especially if it comes from ecologically and socially harmful activities, and demand effective nature protection measures to improve the mitigation capacity of our ecosystems.

It should be noted that this year the role of young people will be taken into account, counting for the first time with a full day (November 10) where the role of the new generations will be discussed.

Finally, we must not forget that civil society, in democratic countries, through the election of its representatives, has a key responsibility in said political will. Demanding it through its support for governments that guarantee it is one of its most important responsibilities.

A version of this article was previously published by the Office for the Transfer of Research Results (OTRI) of the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM).

Sonia Quiroga, Full Professor of Economic Analysis and Quantitative Economics, Complutense University of Madrid and Enrique Andivia Muñoz, Professor and researcher in the Department of Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolution, Complutense University of Madrid

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original.