Expectations From COP 27 Shoot Up

The 27th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), succinctly called COP 27, is taking place in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt from November 6 to 18, 2022. The conference is being held at a time when the world is facing grimmer impacts of climate change. 

The basic thrust of the conference is to build on successes achieved on the front of climate action and make a strategy for future climate action. Climate action is not solely confined to governments around the world; both governments and non-state parties can collaborate in carrying on action to achieve outcomes so that the looming climate crisis can be mitigated to a great extent. Even businessmen and general people can participate in such action to save the planet from the impending danger posed by climate change. 

Climate action

The conference seeks renewed solidarity and synergy between countries around the world to materialise the historic Paris Agreement to keep the climate crisis at bay. The conference aims at building up outcomes arising from the COP 26 conference held in Glasgow, Scotland in 2021. It is expected that an agreement will be made on financing for climate action in the least developed and island countries by the rich nations, establishment of a separate fund for the recoupment of loss from climate change and climate justice for the vulnerable countries, among others. 

The conference will be a litmus test. How the governments around the world would take the issues of climate change and the impacts of climate change on the vulnerable countries are to be assessed at the conference. The impacts of climate change have manifested themselves in a more pronounced way this year.  A third of Pakistan got flooded, claiming the lives of 1,500 people and causing a loss of US$ 40 billion. The European countries experienced the hottest summer in 500 years. The Philippines was battered by super-typhoon Noru. The whole of Cuba remained in blackout. Hurricane Ian lashed the USA. No country, whether developed, developing or underdeveloped, can avoid the horrors of climate change. 

The rich countries are mostly responsible for carbon emissions. But the developing and least developed nations like Nepal are compelled to endure the toll of climate change because they are the most vulnerable. 

As such, the rich countries should help the poor ones financially or otherwise in mitigating the impacts of climate change. During the COP 26 conference, the developed countries pledged themselves to double adaptation support to US$ 40 billion per year by 2025. However, US$ 300 billion per year will be required by 2030. Viewed thus, the pledged support was not enough. 

It may be noted that the developed countries have pledged US$ 100 billion to support climate action in the developing countries. Multilateral development banks can step into the breach in supplementing the financial pledge made by the developed countries. The developing countries need funding to transit to renewable energy and build resilience. The Resilience and Sustainability Trust led by the International Monetary Fund is a good gesture. Here too, multilateral development banks can step in to strengthen the trust. The collective commitments of G-20 leading industrialised nations are far too little, far too late. The current actions of the rich countries are not enough to solve the climate crisis. In fact, such actions are essential to tackle the climate crisis by reducing carbon emissions, augmenting resilience and adapting to inevitable impacts of climate change. 

The commitments of the developed countries to finance climate action in the developing countries also need to be materialised. The current pledges and policies of such countries will not help limit the global temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius, much less to meet the target of confining the temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius.  Climate change has caused damage to the planet on an unprecedented scale. The growing energy crisis, rising carbon emissions and extreme weather patterns are some of the serious outcomes of climate change. The time has come for the world to assess the damage and take proactive steps to save the planet from further damage. Failure to do so will not bode well for the future of humanity.   

Nepal’s participation

Nepal is also participating in the COP 27 conference. At the conference, the country will raise the issue of risks to the Himalayan ecosystem and the need for enhancing resilience to deal with the climate crisis. The need for collaboration with other mountainous countries in dealing with the alpine crisis will also be broached. The country will finalise the nationally determined contributions (NDCs) before the start of the conference and endorse the climate finance strategy and action plan. The country will also present the detailed draft of the national adaptation plan to the conference. 

Nepal will also forcefully raise the commitments made by the rich countries to grant US$ 100 billion to the developing countries. The commitments were made at the COP 15 conference held in Copenhagen to be effective from 2020. However, the commitments have not been fully translated into action yet. It is, however, expected that the upcoming COP 27 conference will take the issue of climate change seriously and enlist the collaboration of the developed and developing countries alike, together with other stakeholders, including businesses, in tacking the ever-burgeoning crisis induced by climate change. 

(Maharjan has been regularly writing on contemporary issues for this daily since 2000. uttam.maharjan1964@gmail.com)