COP27 | Week 1 wrap-up

Hello. It’s me, again.

Just so you know, this newsletter will NEVER be this long. But if you’re interested in climate change and sustainability, then you might be interested to know what went down at COP27 this week. 

Spoiler alert: It was a LOT. And there’s still a week to go. 

Here are the news, announcements, truth bombs, ironies, and quotable quotes, curated from the web. 

If this was useful to you, and you know someone who might also find it interesting, please share 😬

Tarryn

COP27 | Week 1 wrap-up

 First, a quick recap on COP26

COP26, in Glasgow, was described as a “decision summit” where countries pledged to:

• Phase down the use of coal

• Stop deforestation by 2030

• Cut methane emissions by 30% by 2030

• Submit new climate action plans to the UN

• Immediately do more to prevent a rise in global temperatures

The world has failed miserably at all of the above.

At COP27, world leaders framed the fight against global warming as a battle for human survival. This year, the focus will be on holding countries accountable for failing on their commitments to reverse deforestation and making progress on climate targets.

Loss and damage a key theme at COP27

Developing countries contribute the least to global greenhouse gas emissions but often bear the brunt of nature’s wrath.

• Speaking at the summit, Kenyan President William Ruto described the climate crisis in Africa as a “living nightmare”, with the Horn of Africa suffering the worst drought in 40 years.

• Pakistan is responsible for less than 1% of emissions but is now reeling from the aftermath of the “worst floods in living memory”.

• In October, Nigeria experienced its worst flooding in over a decade, with over 600 people dead and 200,000 homes destroyed.

Poorer nations, already saddled with massive debt, don’t have the funds or resources to adapt to or recover from extreme weather events. This means that when disaster strikes, people die, communities are displaced, livelihoods are destroyed, and ecosystems and cultural heritage are wiped out. When these events hit developed nations, the recovery and build-back effort is fast, coordinated, and effective (to see what I mean, check out the comparison I drew between floods in Nigeria and Australia in last week's newsletter).

Developing countries need $2 trillion A YEAR by 2030 to cut their emissions and cope with the effects of climate breakdown. But a UN report found that international finance to help the most vulnerable countries adapt to climate change has amounted to less than one-tenth of what is needed.

These countries want the larger, emissions-spewing nations, which have contributed the most to climate change, to pay for the loss and damage they suffer as a result of disasters they did not create, i.e., loss and damage support.

Seems fair.

If someone crashes into your car and you weren’t at fault, you’d expect them to pay for the damages.

Rich nations promised 13 years ago to contribute $100 billion a year in climate finance from 2020 for adaptation and mitigation for poorer nations, but this has yet to be delivered.

Thirteen years!

What’s the hold-up? Two main reasons:

• First, rich nations fear that paying into a loss and damage fund would count as an admission of liability that could lead to legal battles.

• Second, so many excuses: Difficult economic conditions, war, inflation, volatile energy supplies. You know, all the stuff that poorer nations also have to deal with. Kenyan President William Ruto described these delaying tactics as “cruel” and “unjust” and will “make Africa spectators as we wipe out lives and livelihoods”.

Many poorer nations believe that richer nations have a duty to provide more support. They want rich countries to take responsibility for their role in climate change.

Switzerland came up with a plan: Why don’t we pay poorer nations to reduce their (already low) emissions but we take the credit for it?

So, Switzerland foots the bill to install energy-efficient lighting and cleaner stoves in millions of households in Ghana. As a result, Ghana reduces its emissions. But Switzerland—not Ghana—gets to count those emissions reductions as progress toward its own climate goals.

Genius or sneaky? I’ll leave that up to you to decide.

But it doesn’t solve the loss and damage problem, because who will pay when the stoves are washed away in a flood?

We may not get the answers for a while because decision-makers have until 2024 to decide what such a fund would look like, although some countries have come to the party at COP27:

• The UK will allow some debt payment deferrals.

• Austria and New Zealand have put forward funding for loss and damage.

• Countries hit by climate disasters will automatically be able to freeze debt payments for up to two years under plans laid out by the International Capital Market Association.

A quick win would be to transfer climate technology to the global south to help countries meet net-zero commitments. Access to technology, capital, and a proper industrial plan will allow poorer countries to start manufacturing things like EVs, solar panels, and batteries, so they don’t have to rely on overpriced and over-taxed exports from richer nations.

Until then, poorer nations will just have to brace themselves for more climate terror.

COP27 news and announcements

⛔️ The UN announces zero tolerance for net-zero greenwashing. In an effort to outlaw greenwashing, the UN High Level Expert Group on Net-Zero Commitments of Non-State Actors (HLEG) announced new recommendations that require companies’ net-zero plans to avoid cheap carbon offsets, to shrink absolute emissions not just emissions intensity, and to tie executive pay to climate goals. Any company building or investing in fossil fuel supply would be banned from claiming it was net-zero.

🛡 The G7 countries have agreed with the V20 countries to set up a Global Shield against Climate Risks, which recognises that vulnerable developing countries need more support for dealing with climate-related damage. The Shield brings together activities in the fields of climate risk finance and preparedness. Under the Shield, protection plans can be put into action quickly if climate-related damage occurs, allowing people and authorities to access the assistance that they urgently need more easily and more quickly.

☑️ The UK’s Transition Plan Taskforce launched its Transition Plan Disclosure Framework, a set of national regulations that it hopes will be the “gold standard” global template for companies transitioning to net-zero carbon emissions. The Framework encourages companies to come up with quality plans to show how they will meet their targets through concrete short-term action and greater accountability. The Framework is open for public comment and should come into effect next year.

☀️ The US government, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Bezos Earth Fund announced a partnership to create an Energy Transition Accelerator (ETA) intended to catalyse private capital to accelerate the clean energy transition in developing countries. The ETA is expected to deliver deeper and earlier emissions reductions by accelerating the deployment of renewable power and the retirement of fossil fuel assets in developing countries.

🌊 The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) published the Wave 1 framework, a pilot version of the first-ever industry framework to assess the sustainability performance of trade transactions. The framework sets out an agreed industry definition of sustainable trade, taking into account both environmental and socio-economic factors, and covers the entire lifecycle of an international trade transaction. Wave 1 relies on a simplified scoring system to allow it to be readily tested by banks and corporates.

📋 The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) published The Business of Climate Recovery: Accelerating Accountability, Ambition and Action report, which serves as a business implementation agenda. It sets out specific interventions, proposals, and policy ideas for accelerating the global decarbonisation of business, which it says can “radically advance the international climate change agenda in the next five years”.

🏥 The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies launched its Global Climate Resilience Platform to support 500 million people at the local community level who are at the frontlines of the climate crisis. It aims to raise at least 1 billion Swiss francs through a five-year global initiative focusing on early warning and anticipatory action, nature-based solutions, safety nets, and shock-responsive social protection. Through the platform, the IFRC network will support meaningful participation and the active leadership of women, local communities, indigenous peoples, youth, and other marginalised and/or under-represented groups in the development and implementation of locally-led climate action in 100 countries most vulnerable to climate change.

💨 Nine countries join the Global Offshore Wind Alliance (GOWA), which aims to develop more offshore wind energy. Belgium, Colombia, Germany, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, the UK, and the US are now partners in an alliance that plans to expand wind energy on a large scale, in a short time, and at a competitive price.

🌿 The US released its Nature-Based Solutions Roadmap that pledges $25 billion to maximise the carbon absorption potential of forests and other natural resources. The roadmap focuses on updating policies, unlocking additional funding, leading with federal facilities and assets, training a nature-based solutions workforce, and amping up research and innovation. In response, the World Wildlife Fund said: “Today's announcement affirms the critical role that the conservation of nature plays in fighting climate change, and the fact that these issues are two sides of the same coin.”

📈Philanthropist Michael Bloomberg announced the Net-Zero Data Public Utility, a plan to create a common model for climate-related corporate data, which would tether companies, rating agencies, and market index services to a single shared standard. The Utility will provide an open-access, “single source of consistent, core climate data that all providers, actors, and users can build on”. The plan was co-authored by French President Emmanuel Macron, and the committee includes major international standards bodies, policymakers, and data service providers such as Bloomberg, Moody’s, S&P Global, the London Stock Exchange Group, Morningstar, and MSCI. 

🌲 A new partnership to conserve the world’s forests—Forests and Climate Leaders Partnership— has launched and will include 25 countries, including the US, South Korea, Canada, Norway, Australia, Japan, and the UK. The countries will hold each other accountable for a pledge to end deforestation by 2030, and announced billions of dollars to finance their efforts. Notable omissions from the group are Brazil, with its Amazon rainforest, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, whose vast forests are home to endangered wildlife, including gorillas.

⚠️ The UN announced a plan to roll out the Early Warning for All system to warn people around the world about climate-related hazards like extreme storms and floods so they can get out of harm’s way when extreme weather strikes. The new plan aims to set up early-warning systems over the next five years in places that don't already have them, beginning with the poorest and most vulnerable countries and regions.

💾 The US government and telecoms company AT&T launched the Climate Risk and Resilience Portal to provide free access to data about the country's future climate risks. The idea is to help community leaders better understand and prepare for local dangers from more extreme weather.

🌎 Climate Trace, a new website launched by Al Gore, shows the exact sources of greenhouse gas emissions based on independent data from over 72,000 facilities across 241 countries and territories. Not surprisingly, power plants, oil and gas fields, and methane are the biggest culprits, and Australia emerged as a fossil fuel giant, with a single power station producing more emissions than Fiji, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Kiribati, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, and Micronesia combined.

☢️ The International Atomic Energy Agency has exhibited at COP for the first time, positioning nuclear energy as a safe and cost-effective way to decarbonise the planet. The Nuclear for Climate network is lobbying governments to consider nuclear energy investments.

⚡️ Egypt launched Phase 1 of the first project to produce green hydrogen, in cooperation with Norwegian energy giant, Scatec. The country is also implementing a power-exchange project with Saudi Arabia, which announced plans to establish renewable energy plants capable of producing 1,100 megawatts.

🔭 The World Climate Research Programme, Future Earth, and The Earth League published 10 New Insights in Climate Science. This year, authors unpack the complex interactions between climate change and other drivers of risk, such as conflicts, pandemics, food crises, and underlying development challenges.

What the people want

💸 Polluter’s tax on the fossil fuel industry. The Bridgetown Agenda has proposed a 10% tax on fossil fuel profits to fund loss and damage. Read this article for a comprehensive overview of money talks at COP27, including more on loss and damage, calls for reforms at international financial institutions, and an idea that climate-ravaged developing countries should be allowed to stop debt repayments to rich countries.

🏦 Reforms at international financial institutions. A group of 10 major economies—including all of the G7 group—has called for a fundamental reform of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, saying the current models are no longer appropriate in this time of global crises. The proposals aim to make the finance institutions fit to address global challenges, including climate action, biodiversity conservation, and pandemic preparedness. Read more here and here.

⛽️ A fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty. Environmental groups want to accelerate the transition from fossil fuels and ultimately put an end to all new oil, gas, and coal projects. They want governments to promote the development of wind, solar, and other renewable power rather than relying on oil and gas. The Vatican, the World Health Organization, and the mayor of London have backed the concept. There have been calls for countries to phase out the use of coal by 2040.

Oh, the irony

🥤 Coca-Cola is a major sponsor of COP27, even though it was named the world’s leading polluter of plastics in 2021, and has increased its use of new plastics since 2019 by 3% to 3.2 million tons. Greenwashing much? To its credit, Coca-Cola has outlined plans to make its packaging recyclable worldwide by 2025. It also produced 900 prototype bottles in 2021 made almost entirely of plant-based plastic, excluding the cap and the label.

🛢 The UAE said it will continue producing fossil fuels as long as there is a need for oil and gas. Many countries with rich resources of oil, gas, and coal have criticised the push for a rapid transition away from fossil fuels, arguing it is “economically reckless” and “unfair” to poorer and less-developed nations keen for economic growth. Al Gore has accused developed nations of committing “fossil fuel colonialism” by continuing to pursue gas resources in Africa. Meanwhile, the number of delegates with links to fossil fuels has jumped 25% from the last summit.

🐄 Livestock farming, which accounts for between 16% and 28% of all greenhouse gas pollution—more than all the world’s transport emissions—was barely mentioned at the summit. This is despite research that, by 2030, greenhouse gases from livestock farming could use half the world’s entire carbon budget and that, by 2100, food production will bust the global carbon budget two or three times over. Read more here.

🛬 Data from FlightRadar24 shows 36 private jets landed at Sharm el-Sheikh between 4 and 6 November, the start of the COP27 summit. A further 64 flew into Cairo, 24 of which had come from Sharm el-Sheikh. Tsk, tsk. Read more here.

🤦🏻‍♀Of the 111 speakers at COP27, just seven of them were female, and 63% of all party delegates were men. Read more here.

🙆🏾‍♂️ Day of 8 Billion to happen during COP27. The global population is expected to officially hit eight billion people on 15 November 2022. Read more here.

Funding deals announced at COP27

• Egypt signs partnerships for its Nexus of Water-Food-Energy programme worth $15bn.

• France and Germany sign loan agreements to extend €300 million to South Africa to support its shift away from coal-fired power.

• Italy, Britain, and Sweden pledge more than $350 million to finance nature-based solutions to the climate crisis in countries including Egypt, Fiji, Kenya, and Malawi.

• A group of over 85 African insurers pledge $14 billion to help the continent’s most vulnerable communities deal with climate disaster risks. Read more about the African Climate Risk Facility here.

WMO releases the State of the Global Climate Report 2022

The World Meteorological Organization released the State of the Global Climate Report 2022 at COP27, and it reads like a chronicle of chaos as the climate unravels.

Here are the highlights (or rather, the lowlights):

• Global temperatures have now risen by 1.15°C since pre-industrial times.

• The internationally agreed 1.5°C limit for global heating is “barely within reach”.

• The last eight years were on track to be the warmest on record, but 2022 is likely to “only” be the fifth or sixth warmest.

• The levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached record levels in 2021.

• The rate of sea level rise has doubled since 1993. It has risen by nearly 10mm since January 2020 to a new record high this year.

• Ocean heat was at record levels in 2021.

• In the European Alps, glacier melt records were shattered in 2022.

• In East Africa, rainfall has been below average in four consecutive wet seasons, the longest in 40 years.

• The United Kingdom saw a new national record on 19 July, when the temperature topped more than 40°C for the first time.

Explainer: Net-Zero

If you want to lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you consume, i.e., what you put in must come out—and then some.

Net-zero is like losing weight for the planet, only we replace calories with emissions.

The global goal is to reduce carbon emissions to as close to zero as possible. 

It means removing as much—but preferably more—emissions from the environment as we put in. 

Some ways we can do this include:

• Moving away from coal, oil, and gas and investing in renewable energy,

• Investing in nature-based solutions,

• Cleaning the air by planting more trees and regenerating forests, and

• Switching to cleaner transport, like electric vehicles.

Many countries aim to be net-zero by 2050, but few are making progress on this goal.

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And look out for next week's wrap-up of COP27, week 2.

Thank you for reading ✌️