CER Climate Advocacy Lawyer, Brandon Abdinor, and CER Head of Communications, Lerato Balendran, will be using a local lens to discuss themes and developments from this year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference, the COP27 summit, taking place from 6 to 18 November 2022 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
NOVEMBER 7: calm and colourful but where is the climate emergency?
The opening day of COP27 in Egypt’s resort town of Sharm el Sheikh was, certainly from a logistical point of view, calm. Friendly United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) staff ensured that registration of the thousands of delegates, whooshing up to the venue in electric buses, was efficient and welcoming. More than 45 000 government negotiators, scientists and other experts, activists, journalists and business role-players are expected to officially attend the global climate talks over the next two weeks.
And it was colourful. People from virtually every country and corner of the globe. Some wearing breathtakingly beautiful traditional garb. Some in denims and t-shirts with climate justice messaging or newsroom logos. Many in expensive tailored suits. Many others, from the hordes of security personnel, wearing less expensive and more ominous black suits alongside their uniformed and armed colleagues.
The aircraft-hanger like convention centre rooms are filled with state-of-the-art pavilions showcasing countries, organisations, initiatives and funds. Not entirely unlike a climate change extravaganza. Deadly climate emergency? Not a very tangible sense of that. It certainly feels galaxies away from the informal settlements in Durban, decimated by the climate change aggravated flooding that occurred in April this year.
The town itself is also colourful. Dozens of outrageously flamboyant hotels behind steel gates. Fountains, lawns and palm trees. Shops, tour operators, restaurants, casinos and more shops promise rewarding consumption and air-conditioned entertainment on every corner of the sprawling concrete playground. Climate action, in real terms, does not seem to be a huge consideration here. The colour is in stark contrast to the almost monochromatic and rugged beauty of the Sinai desert with its sharp mountains.
Loss and Damage? On the agenda, but T&Cs apply!
Negotiators worked into the early hours of Sunday morning, fighting (literally for dear life, all things considered) to include a meaningful discussion of loss and damage (L&D) on the agenda.
Led largely by developing countries and most vulnerable nations (and generally opposed by those who have caused most of the global warming through their current and historical greenhouse gas emissions) L&D funding became a sub-agenda item under finance. Specifically, “funding arrangements to respond to the adverse impacts of climate change” will be discussed with a view to arriving at a decision by 2024.
But (and this is a “but” that just won’t go away), there is a footnote that says that such discussions do not involve liability or compensation.
Quite simply, emitters are still not intending to pay for the damages that they have caused. A stance that has been strongly present since L&D was first raised as an emergent issue almost at the outset of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).*
Carbon markets and “removal”
The Supervisory Body overseeing carbon trading has finalised high-level recommendations for carbon removal standards. These open the way for ocean geoengineering and technologies such as carbon capture and storage (CCS) – methods intended to remove and store human caused GHG emissions from the atmosphere. None of these methods can realistically be guaranteed to be viable or available at scale, and are likely to have enormously destructive social and environmental consequences. They also provide an effective licence to continue GHG emitting activities, as polluters defer emissions reduction claiming that future removals will offset current emissions.
Civil society, activists and indigenous rights groups vigorously oppose this thinking and these are grounds of growing struggle which will dominate this aspect of the negotiations.
About the money
Climate finance issue continue to be a thorny and critical issue. The African Group of Negotiators attempted to formally include a specific agenda item that would see adaptation finance being brought to a par with mitigation finance. This was rejected but the topic will continue to be discussed in principled terms.
Developing nations are concerned that much of what appears to be climate finance is no more repackaged commercial loaning, adding to already crushing sovereign debt burdens.
Many eyes will be on announcements relating to South Africa’s JET-P – an apparent $8,5 billion package of loans and grants intended to assist with the country’s transition away from coal. There are grave concerns about how this will work, and if it will indeed be true to the “just” aspect of a Just Transition.
The perennial issue – emissions reduction
A United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) emissions gap report released two weeks ago has shown that current pledges and policies by nations will lead to an temperature increase of between 2.6°C and 2.8°C, dangerously far away from the 1.5°C that science tells us in necessary to avert exponential damage and risk.
Will the necessary actions to increase reduction ambition be seen, or is the global energy crisis and near universal economic volatility continue to be used to water down ambition?
A captivating fortnight ahead
COP27 is hailed as the ‘accountability’ COP, where action is now necessary to make all the agreements and pledges meaningful. Most emitters, particularly from the fossil fuel sector, seem to be digging their heels in and avoiding meaningful emissions reduction. Most state decision-making on the ground supports this in reality, talk aside. Activists and vulnerable groupings are feeling desperate and angry.
It’s a volatile and heady mix against the backdrop of the loudly ticking clock.
*Loss and Damage refers to the needs of addressing those impacts of climate change that are already occurring, or will occur regardless of what adaptation measures are put in place. It is quite distinct from climate adaptations, but those in opposition to such measures have tried to group it with adaptation for many years. The concept includes compensation and reparations, technical support and establishing institutional arrangements to facilitate the support. It embodies the globally recognised principle of “polluter pays” which states that those who cause the damage must pay for it.
Check back soon for further updates as COP27 progresses.
