COP27: Guide to the basics
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
What is COP?
COP stands for Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It is the main UN climate change summit, hosted in rotation by cities around the world.
There are now 197 parties representing countries that are signatories to common agreements designed to curb catastrophic global warming.
Previous conferences have resulted in commitments such as the Paris Agreement in 2015, when signatories pledged to limit warming to at least 1.5C and a red line of “well below” 2C compared with pre-industrial levels.
This is the level at which scientists agree that irreversible planetary “tipping points” are most likely to occur, such as the collapse of the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets and abrupt permafrost thaw.
Last year, COP26 took place in Glasgow after being delayed by a year owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Glasgow Climate Pact was watered down in the final minutes after objections to a commitment to end coal use. Countries instead agreed to “phase down” rather than “phase out” coal.
When is COP27 and where is it taking place?
This year’s COP is being held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. It started on November 6 and is expected to end on November 18, but last-minute negotiations took the summit two-days into overtime.
The location has proved contentious due to the Sisi regime’s detention of thousands of dissidents, as well as strict controls over protest groups and reports of harassment of local non-governmental organisations.
Emblematic of the human rights issues is Alaa Abdel Fattah, the blogger and software developer who went on a food and water strike in an Egyptian prison.
What is on the COP27 agenda?
The concept of “loss and damage” funding was put on the formal agenda for the first time this year. Loss and damage is shorthand for disastrous or irreversible climate impacts, such as the loss of land or livelihoods that neither mitigation nor adaptation funding and support has prevented.
The idea emerged more than 30 years ago in small island countries, which were most at risk from rising sea levels and storms.
Negotiators also have a series of other critical agenda items, which include adaptation, finance, development and transfer of technologies, and gender.
Why is COP important?
The UN summits are designed to develop new global commitments to tackle climate change and track progress towards fulfilment of a set of goals.
The agreements signed by all of the parties are legally binding, although the COP has no formal enforcement mechanism.
Climate change can be described as the shifts in climate that result from the warming of the planet. Temperatures have already risen at least 1.1C in the industrial era.
At stake this year is the approaching rise in temperature of 1.5C cited in the Paris Agreement as a key threshold.
Who is attending COP27?
The Egyptian president of COP27 said the event had drawn an unprecedented 66,000 participants, including more than 120 heads of state and government, country negotiators and representatives from business and civil society and media.
The UNFCCC, which is responsible for the international climate treaty that lies behind the conference, said the registered delegates numbered about 46,000 and the total figure in Egypt included technical and support staff.
US president Joe Biden, French president Emmanuel Macron, UK prime minister Rishi Sunak (after a last-minute U-turn) and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen have made appearances. Newly-elected Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva also arrived in the second week, to much fanfare.
China’s president Xi Jinping did not attend, nor Indian prime minister Narendra Modi. Also absent was Anthony Albanese of Australia and Justin Trudeau of Canada.
Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg skipped the Sharm el-Sheikh meeting, calling it a forum for “greenwashing” but many other fellow activists from around the world, and in particular from the African continent, were present. They include Vanessa Nakate from Uganda as well as Ayisha Siddiqa, from Pakistan, among the headline speakers.
On the corporate side, while oil and gas companies have been part of side events and COP-endorsed business groups before, this year’s summit was the first to invite oil and gas companies to participate in the official COP27 programme of events, according to the organisers.
Who are the corporate sponsors at COP27?
The UN event has different tiers of corporate sponsorship. The lead sponsors this year are Vodafone, Microsoft, BCG, GM, Infinity Power, EgyptAir, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Afreximbank and Orascom.
Drawing the most controversy was the choice of Coca-Cola, listed in the third tier of sponsorship as a “supporter”. The beverage group faced protests from campaigners as one of the world’s largest plastic polluters. Its branded refrigerators were throughout the sprawling COP venue but were empty for most of the first week of the event.
Ahead of the summit, data from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation showed the company had increased its use of newly manufactured plastic by 3.5 per cent since 2019.
What has been discussed so far?
US climate envoy John Kerry launched a proposal to create a system that would help to finance the phaseout of coal power by raising funds from the sale of carbon credits to polluting companies. It received a deeply divided response.
UN secretary-general António Guterres issued a warning that “we are on a highway to climate hell” while calling for a new “climate solidarity pact” in which rich countries would help poorer nations financially. Meanwhile, former UK prime minister Boris Johnson said Britain did not have the financial resources to pay “reparations” to low-income countries affected by climate change. Reparations is not a term used by the UN, however. Instead it urges rich countries to help poorer nations through financing that includes grants and loans at interest rates that do not add to massive debt burdens.
Corporate greenwashing is under scrutiny, as former central banker Mark Carney’s “net zero” coalition of more than 500 financial institutions was named among private sector climate initiatives that must maintain tighter standards in a UN high-level experts report.
The past eight years were on track to be the warmest on record, according to a report published by the World Meteorological Organization during the opening session.
How do country’s emissions and pledges compare?
The Financial Times has compiled a searchable dashboard of 193 countries’ historical emissions and future climate targets.
Where and when is COP28 going to be?
The summit will be hosted by the United Arab Emirates. It is expected to take place in November 2023.
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