United Nations Climate Summit - COP27
View from Toni Larson, LWVDenver

Editor's Note:  When I included the summary on COP27 from Connie Sobon Sensor, one of the LVWUS delegates, I did not know that our own Toni Larson also attended.  This month we feature some highlights from her report.  You can read the full report here.

As the name indicates, UNFCCC-COP27 is the 27th gathering of people from around the world working on the dire issues related to climate change. More than 35,000 attended COP27, representing 198 countries. Whether these are official numbers I am not sure, but there certainly were a lot of people there!

The National League was allotted nine observers. Some of the nine attended the first week and others the second week. Some attended in person, some virtually.

The site for the conference depends on nations volunteering to host the conference. If no country volunteers, the default is Germany. This year the conference was held in Sharm el-Sheikh (Sharm), Egypt, the City of Peace, on the Sinai Peninsula. The town is at the southern tip of the peninsula where the Suez and Aquaba Gulfs of the Red Sea meet. Sharm is a new town with today’s town beginning in 1967. Funding for the development is primarily from Israel. It has been developed as a tourist destination (snorkeling and diving are preeminent) and as a conference center.  The 2023 conference (COP28) will be held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

The overall theme of the conference was implementation. After years of “blah, blah, blahing,,” participants wanted action. Loss and damage was also a main topic. By this, the conference meant that a fund should be set up worth billions (or trillions) to help the most vulnerable countries contend with climate induced storms and damage. The voices and needs of the most climate vulnerable nations must be heard and climate justice must be delivered. Wealthier countries should contribute $100 billion per year to aid developing countries get back on their feet. The developing countries had little to do with contributing to climate-damage-created disasters and should be compensated for experienced damage. Loss and damage funds are to be used to help repair damage from storms and other factors. Funds also need to be invested in transitioning to alternative energy.

Here are some highlights of the major actions taken at the conference. Even in the face of geopolitical issues, the conference made some progress. Let’s see if the decisions are implemented.

• Technology – A five -year work programme to promote energy solutions in developing countries
• Mitigation – Mitigation work programme for governments to revisit and strengthen 2030 targets by the end of 2023. Phasedown of unabated coal power and phaseout of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies, clean and just transitions to renewable energy
• Global Stocktake – A mechanism to raise ambitions under the Paris Agreement. Global Stocktake or taking stock of the implementation of the Paris Agreement evaluating progress made and adequate goals, “It will inform what everybody, every single day, everywhere in the world, needs to do, to avert the climate crisis.”
• Twenty-five new collaborative actions
• Globally clean energy supplies must double by 2030 for the world to limit global warming within set targets.