What did the conference achieve?
While the Egyptian Presidency had promised an “implementation COP” to make concrete the pledges made at COP26, the resulting agreement contains more on the impact of climate change than on its causes.
The final COP27 deal – named the Sharm el-Sheikh Implementation Plan – achieved a historic agreement on finance for loss and damage – seeing richer nations and the most significant polluters pledge to provide financial aid to poorer nations who are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Almost 200 countries agreed to the fund, yet there is currently no agreement on how much money should be paid in, and by whom, and on what basis. Earlier in the week, negotiating parties agreed to mobilise the Santiago Network on Loss and Damage, to provide technical assistance to countries experiencing extreme weather and climate disasters.
On curbing emissions, the COP27 agreement went back on key commitments established at Glasgow last year, including the target for global emissions to peak by 2025 – considered key to achieving the limit of 1.5C of heating. The deal merely reiterated the COP26 commitment to “phase down” coal, despite calls from nations including the UK to include stronger language on the phasing out of all fossil fuels, including oil and gas. António Guterres, secretary general of the UN, warned: “Our planet is still in the emergency room. We need to drastically reduce emissions now – and this is an issue this COP did not address.”
Despite these notable omissions, the agreement marked several firsts, including the first ever mention in a COP cover text of food, rivers, nature-based solutions, climate change tipping points and the right to a healthy environment. And for the first time, the agreement called for the “transformation of the financial system and its structures” to address the “global climate emergency”.
