The United Nations Climate Change Conference COP27, which has recently concluded in Egypt, has been driven by increasing pressure from developing nations for a loss and damage fund, through which large carbon emitters would pay for irreversible climate harms, like Pakistan’s recent floods. The demand struggled to make headway for most of the two weeks of the conference, meeting resistance from the United States and other industrialised countries. However, an extended 24 hours of negotiation saw an agreement being reached.
Liberation welcomes the fact that an agreement has been negotiated which will see developing nations entitled to hundreds of billions of dollars a year as reparations for the “loss and damage” of climate change, which richer nations have created. The fund, which it is widely expected will take at least a year to work out entitlements, is in addition to the promise of wealthy nations to provide $100 billion to help vulnerable areas reduce emissions and adapt to warming that is already underway.
However, this is a promise which has not been fulfilled and there is a legitimate fear amongst climate change activists, shared by Liberation, that protracted negotiations over loss and damage arrangements could take a long time to bear any fruit.
While the loss and damage deal must be seen, on paper at least, as a victory after 30 years of lobbying from the developing world, the overall outcomes from COP27 are not as encouraging.
The recently published, Global Carbon Budget, an annual assessment of how much the world can afford to emit to stay within its warming targets, found that greenhouse gas pollution will hit a record high this year. Much of the growth comes from a 1% increase in carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels.
The report indicates that nations are likely to burn through their remaining carbon budget in less than a decade, if they do not significantly reduce greenhouse gas pollution. This will result in the world passing the critical warming threshold of 1.5C above pre-industrial levels in a mere nine years, resulting in catastrophic climate impacts. These impacts will disproportionately impact upon the poorer and developing nations, exacerbating already significant imbalances in wealth and resources across the world.
Far from backing the call for greater investment in renewable and alternative energy sources, leaders at COP27 have been advocating natural gas as a transition fuel, from fossil based energy to renewables. At least four new gas projects have been announced recently, looking to plug the gap in supply, as a result of the reduction in supply from Russia.
A study by the research group Climate Action Tracker shows that currently planned projects would more than double the world’s current liquefied natural gas capacity, generating roughly 47 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent between now and 2050. While burning gas for energy emits about half as much carbon dioxide equivalent as burning coal, that is still a significant amount of carbon dioxide generation.
Climate scientists have stressed that planned expansion goes beyond what is needed to replace interrupted Russian fuel supplies. The proposals also fly in the face of findings by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the International Energy Agency that there can be no new gas, oil and coal development if humanity wants to prevent dangerous warming beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius.
While an initial group of more than 20 countries had pledged to stop public investments in overseas fossil fuel projects by the end of this year, some are backsliding as the hunt for alternatives to Russian gas continues. The credibility of the COP27 process was further undermined by the significant presence of representatives from fossil fuel companies. An estimated 200 people connected to oil, gas and coal were included in country delegations, with another 236 with trade groups and other nongovernmental organisations.
It does little to inspire confidence that COP28 will be hosted by the United Arab Emirates, whose President has pledged to continue providing oil and gas “for as long as the world is in need.”
Liberation welcomes the loss and damage agreement reached at COP27 and urges the United Nations to act swiftly to devise a formula for implementation. Liberation further urges the UN to put pressure upon the worlds wealthy nations to make good existing promises, to help developing countries reduce emissions and adapt to the existing challenges of global warming.
Any new pledges to limit carbon emissions targets or proposals to phase out oil, gas and coal were absent from the COP27 final agreement. Liberation is concerned that the world’s developed nations do not see climate action as a necessary response to a climate emergency and remain more concerned about protecting their own economic status and financial interests.
It is the view of Liberation that, if COP28 is to make progress next year, the pressure upon the governments of the developed world must continue and promises, easily made but quickly broken, must be translated into meaningful action
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