COP27: What will be different this year?

You may have heard about "COP", or even this year's COP27 - but what is it, exactly? And what will happen at the conference this year?

November 16th, 2022

The UN Climate Conference of the Parties, or, COP, is an annual meeting of countries all over the world to discuss the issues of Global Climate Change. COP27 started on November 6th and will conclude on Friday, November 18th in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. It'll mark 30 years since the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted and seven years since the Paris Agreement was agreed at COP21.

The key issues being discussed are the following:

• Keeping the rise in global average temperature to 'well below' 2°C, and ideally 1.5°C, above pre-industrial levels.

• Strengthen the ability to adapt to climate change and build overall resilience.

• Align finance flows with ‘a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development’.

Since 2015, under the legally-binding Paris Agreement treaty, almost all countries in the world have committed to these key points. But what makes THIS COP27 so important?

We all know that, according to leading scientists, the world is now in extremely dangerous territory and every delay in reducing carbon emissions is a move closer to a point of unchangeable damage to the climate and the world's ability to support humans, especially in the most vulnerable regions. About half the world's population lives in a country that is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. People living in those regions are already 15 times more likely to due to floods, droughts, and severe storms.

Radical action is needed this decade on both mitigation and adaptation. This exact urgency is recognized in the convening of countries at COP27.

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"...every delay in reducing carbon emissions is a move closer to a point of unchangeable damage to the climate and the world's ability to support humans, especially in the most vulnerable regions."

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Why the key urgency now?

The latest assessment shows that as of late September 2022, mitigation commitments by all countries, if implemented, increase emissions by 10.6% by 2030, in strong contrast to the 45% emissions reduction needed to align with a 1.5°C pathway. Under current pledges, the world would be likely to see a catastrophic 2.5°C warming by the end of the century. This is not good news.

According to the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), in all scenarios in line with 1.5°C or 2°C warming limits, global emissions must fall between 2020 and 2025. In reality, emissions are still rising, with atmospheric levels of the three main greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide) all reaching new record highs in 2021.

Enough is enough - we all need to make changes in the way we live in order to stem climate change. We don't know exactly what life would be like with temperature increases in the ranges estimated, but we don't want to find out.

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