Concluding Reflections on COP27

Language: 
English
Sent On: 
Sat, 2022-12-17
Year: 
2022
Newsletter Number: 
41

In the early morning hours on Sunday, November 20th, official country delegations reached consensus on the “Sharm al-Shaykh Implementation Plan,” the title given to the final agreement reached at COP27 in the Egyptian Red Sea resort town. As usual, the negotiations extended beyond the formal conference program which ran from November 6th - November 18th. Although a confusing and almost overwhelming blur of activity surrounds every COP, it is the final negotiated agreement which remains the primary goal of these annual meetings. In 2022, there were 198 delegations involved in the negotiations, including UN member states and UN observer states like Palestine and the Vatican. The member states and the annual COP meetings operate within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change which was first ratified in 1994. In fact, as long as an annual COP meeting is in session, the Blue Zone area, where the official delegations meet and negotiate every year, is considered to be international territory under U.N. control. The Green Zone, which I was able to visit this year, features a wide spectrum of civil society organizations, academic institutions, and businesses, and remains under the normal jurisdiction of the host country. Estimates suggest that some 45,000 people attended this year’s conference.

 

Green Zone Pavilion

 

Ryan Hobert, the managing director for energy, climate, and the environment at the U.N. Foundation and a friend of Dialogue Across Borders, explained that, “every COP is primarily concerned to address the multifaceted challenges posed by global warming. This is often discussed in terms of mitigation (i.e. reducing carbon emissions), adaptation (i.e. addressing the impact of climate change that has already occurred), and finance (i.e. how these efforts can or should be financed). At the same time, specific themes emerge each year and this year was uniquely focused on the question of ‘loss and damages.’” For decades, less developed countries have requested financial support from more developed countries for addressing the diverse impacts of climate change, particularly because developed and highly industrialized countries emit more of the greenhouse gasses driving the climate crisis. The issue of “loss and damages” appears to have been the most contentious question at COP27, as wealthier countries like the United States have been hesitant to sign any agreement which might be interpreted to imply broad financial liability for global climate damage. The language in the final agreement which described the development of international funding mechanisms for “loss and damages” was kept vague enough to gain approval. 

 

As the executive editor of Dialogue Across Borders, I worked to understand the role of faith communities at COP27. In the Green Zone, I was surprised that there were not more faith-based organizations represented. To my knowledge, al-Azhar University and the Coptic Evangelical Organization for Social Services (CEOSS) comprised some of the only faith-based institutions with formal booths in the Green Zone. In the Blue Zone, there were official delegations from the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, al-Azhar, and other religious communities. Nonetheless, my overall impression through my experience and further conversations was that the role of religious communities at COP27 was less prominent than I would have expected.

 

  

 Al-Azhar University section in Green Zone  

 

       

 CEOSS meeting on sustainable agriculture in Green Zone & CEOSS sign in Green Zone

 

Archbishop Samy meets with Coptic and Catholic Representatives at ecumenical prayer service

 

In comments to Dialogue Across Borders, Kseniia Popova who works as a sustainable developer project manager with the SEKEM Group in Egypt noted some of the positives of COP27 after her experience in the Green Zone: “Initially, these conferences were established as strictly political events for countries to agree on actions in pursuit of climate crisis goals. However, 27 years have passed and the situation has changed. They have become the largest of the UN annual conferences and COP27 was the largest COP in history. They are now more than simply political discussions behind closed doors. Rather, they have become an amazing opportunity for real-life actors and activists to expand their networks and push their own projects further. At COP, you can speak with everyone from prime ministers to the CEOs of large international corporations to indigenous leaders.”

 

Of course, significant criticism is voiced before, during, and after every COP. Many activists working on climate change feel that the annual conference does not go far enough in its commitments. Despite this and other criticisms, my own impression is that the annual COP meetings represent a critically important global initiative and that COP27 itself was a success for Egypt and the world. In a closing statement to Dialogue Across Borders, Ryan Hobert noted the urgency of climate action: “In my view and that of most others working on climate change and the environment, the critical urgency of these questions will become increasingly obvious to everyone in the years to come and will no longer be considered debatable.” Planning is already in motion for COP28 in 2023 which will be held from November 30th to December 12th in the United Arab Emirates.

 

Important Links

 

The Sharm al-Shaykh Implementation Plan

Detailed CarbonBrief Analysis on COP27

COP27 Summary Article from the Guardian

SEKEM Group (Egypt)

CEOSS

 

 

 

Matthew Anderson

Executive Editor

Dialogue Across Borders

 

December 17, 2022