The world doesn’t agree on energy
And COP27 in Egypt has just confirmed that
COP – which stands for Conference of the Parties – is the annual conference attended by the Parties to assess the effects of the measures taken and the progress made in fighting climate change and to set new increasingly ambitious goals.
At the 27th conference, which took place in Sharm el-Sheikh last November, countries struggled to agree on long-term strategies. It took 40 extra hours to reach an agreement on what to include in the final draft.
The most important decision is to establish the “loss and damage” funding for vulnerable countries hit hard by climate disasters. “An important step towards justice”, said UN Secretary-General António Guterres, but it is not enough to rebuild broken trust between North and South of the world. No mention, in fact, of the single strategies each Party will have to use to mitigate climate change.
At COP27, countries struggled to agree on long term strategies for fighting climate change.
Nevertheless, it is a historical outcome, if we consider the principle that rich countries must help poor ones was already discussed in 2009, during COP15 in Copenhagen. Back then, it was suggested $100 billion a year in climate finance for developing countries, but no concrete action has been made so far.
The “loss and damage” funding will be followed by a “transitional committee”, which will provide recommendations for the set up and operations of the fund and recommend which countries should receive funding. The Committee will report during next climate conference in Dubai in 2023.
The issue of who will benefit from the funding seems to be the most difficult part. As ISPI explains, the role of China will be crucial, considering that it is formally classified as a developing country and could benefit from the funding for this. However, today China is one of the world’s largest emitters of greenhouse gases and so it should pay into the fund, according to U.S and EU.
Picture by Mattthew Tenbruggencate | Unsplash
During the conference, EU has announced a more ambitious target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 57% by 2030, almost 2% more than the current goal. According to many non-governmental organizations, this won’t be enough, if compared to 65% necessary to allow EU countries to limit the average rise in global temperatures to 1.5C.
COP27 confirmed the ambition to accelerate energy transition towards renewable sources, progressively reducing the use of industrial plants that don’t have CO2 recovering systems. If last year the final draft suggested a phase down of coal-fired power, this year the request for reducing oil, coal and gas use further has been rejected. Instead, it seems gas should be used as a vector to support the transition less traumatically and permanently get rid of coal, much more impactful on the atmosphere.
According to UN General António Guterres, at COP27 an important step towards justice was made, but he also said “clearly this will not be enough, but it is a much-needed political signal to rebuild broken trust between North and South of the world”.
In this scenario full of tension, energy crisis and economic recession, too many questions are yet unsolved.
