2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference

The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, more commonly referred to as COP27, was the 27th United Nations Climate Change conference, held from 6 November until 20 November 2022 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. It took place under the presidency of Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry, with more than 92 heads of state and an estimated 35,000 representatives, or delegates, of 190 countries attending. It was the first climate summit held in Africa since 2016.

The conference has been held annually since the first UN climate agreement in 1992. It is used by governments to agree on policies to limit global temperature rises and adapt to impacts associated with climate change. The conference led to the first loss and damage fund being created.

Background

Egypt was announced as the host of the conference following a successful bid launched in 2021. On 8 January 2022 the Minister of Environment of Egypt, Yasmine Fouad, met with COP26 President Alok Sharma to discuss preparations for the conference. The Egyptian organizers advised countries to set aside tensions over the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine to ensure negotiations are successful.

Possible climate change measures were discussed at the 2022 United Nations General Assembly, including the governments of several island nations launching the Rising Nations initiative, and Denmark and Scotland announcing climate finance measures for developing countries. On 14 October 2022, the Scottish government called for climate reparations at COP27, as a "moral responsibility". At a pre-COP meeting in October 2022, UN Secretary-General António Guterres emphasized the importance of the conference given the impacts of climate change observed in 2022, such as floods in Pakistan, heat waves in Europe and Hurricane Ian.

The conference will be the first COP to take place in Africa since 2016, when COP22 was held in Marrakesh. Egypt's Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry will take over the presidency from Sharma at the start of the conference. The United States decided to support climate talks at COP27, and will try to assist countries that are most affected by climate change.

One week ahead of the summit, UNEP released a report outlining how there was "no credible pathway" to limiting global temperature increase to 1.5 °C and that mitigation efforts since COP26 had been "woefully inadequate". But countries can curb time spent in a warmer world by adopting more ambitious climate pledges and decarbonizing faster, according to a new research published in the academic journal Nature Climate Change during the COP27.

Several days before the opening of the summit a report was published, sponsored by some of the biggest agricultural companies. The report was produced by Sustainable Markets Initiative an organization of companies, trying to become climate friendly, established by the king Charles III. According to the report, Regenerative agriculture is already implemented on 15% of all cropland. Despite it the rate of transition is "far too slow" and must be tripled by the year 2030 for preventing the global temperature to pass the threshold of 1.5 degrees above preindustrial level. Agricultural practices must immediately change for not "destroying the planet". One of the authors emphasized that “The interconnection between human health and planetary health is more evident than ever before.” The authors propose a set of measures for accelerating the transition, like creating metrics for measuring how much the farming is sustainable and pay the farmers who will change their farming mode to more sustainable. They want to present their propositions in the summit.

Two days before the start of the talks, a compromise was reached, "that discussion would focus on 'cooperation and facilitation' not ' liability or compensation. The ultimate goal of the 2022 COP27 was in dispute. Wealthy countries were expected to focus on ways to help developing nations phase out fossil fuels and transition to renewable energy. However, tensions between richer, developed countries and poorer nations, the latter of which bear the brunt of climate impacts, over who should pay the costs of global warming, were expected to define the conference.

Sponsorship

The conference was sponsored by Coca-Cola. Several environmental campaigners suggested this was greenwashing, given the company's contribution to plastic pollution.

Challenges for the African continent

In a report published in October 2021, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) considered Africa to be the most vulnerable continent to the effects of climate change. More than 100 million Africans will in fact be threatened by global warming between now and 2030. Thus many States, NGOs and African commentators hoped that the holding of this summit in an African country would improve the visibility of the priority demands of civil society and African States, in particular the compensation of developing countries for the consequences of global warming.

Participation

As a COVID-19 recovery strategy, the Egyptian government increased hotel prices in Sharm El Sheikh, leading to concerns over the affordability and inclusivity of the conference. Egypt's foreign, environment and social solidarity ministries privately selected and screened local NGOs that would be permitted to apply for one-time registration for the climate summit. The application process and the selection criteria were not made public.

Around 90 heads of state and representatives from more than 190 countries were expected to attend, including United States president Joe Biden and climate envoy John Kerry, French president Emmanuel Macron, German chancellor Olaf Scholz, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, Kenyan president William Ruto and Sri Lankan president Ranil Wickremesinghe.

By the number of attendees the COP is the second largest after COP26 in Glasgow, at 33,449 participants. This is the first COP without observer states as all participating countries, including Vatican City, have ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. 11,711 participants were from 1,751 non-governmental organizations. The United Arab Emirates led the largest delegation with 1,073 participants, followed by Brazil (573), and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (459). Many of the ten largest delegations came from African countries.

UK prime minister Rishi Sunak initially said that he would not attend COP27. However, on 2 November, Sunak backtracked and announced he would attend. Former prime minister Boris Johnson and Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon also attended the conference. Right after winning the 2022 general election, president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil confirmed he will attend the summit.

Non-attendees

Among the heads of state and government not attending were Chinese leader Xi Jinping and his premier Li Keqiang, as well as Russia's Vladimir Putin and his prime minister Mikhail Mishustin.

In September 2022, Egypt warned the United Kingdom not to backtrack on its climate targets, in light of a change to the new government of prime minister Liz Truss, and the announcement that new monarch Charles III would not attend the conference on Truss's advice. Following Truss's resignation, the request that Charles III not attend remained in place. Instead, he hosted a reception to discuss climate change at Buckingham Palace two days prior to COP27.

Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese, outgoing Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, and Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg all did not attend COP27.

During the summit

Itinerary and events

On 7 and 8 November, the conference began with a World Leaders' Summit, followed by discussions on topics such as climate finance, decarbonization, climate change adaptation and agriculture during the first week. The second week is expected to cover gender, water and biodiversity. French president Emmanuel Macron, Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte and Senegalese president Macky Sall will host an event on accelerating climate change adaptation in Africa. India has sought clarity and definition on climate finance besides motivating other countries to provide technology to combat climate and disasters.

Event spaces on the opening day of the conference were told they may need to be cancelled, unless they involve visiting heads of state, following tightening of security. These restrictions will not apply to the following day of the conference. Some NGOs criticized the move. Media access to the pavilions is also expected to have heavy restrictions.

Opening days

In his opening remarks, Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi called for countries to act on climate change, drawing attention to the impact of extreme weather events in recent years. Barbados premier Mia Mottley called for grant-based rather than loan-based approach to climate finance.

Negotiations

The United States proposed a system of carbon credits for facilitating energy transition in low income countries. The U.S. Development Finance Corporation tried to increase investment to help low income countries deal with different impacts of climate change. As a whole rich countries gave 29 billion dollars to the issue in the year 2020 but it is only a fraction of what is needed. The climate minister of Pakistan Sherry Rehman demanded high income countries will pay for the damage caused by climate change impacts, stating that floods in Pakistan cost the country 30 billion dollars that "Pakistan cannot afford". Some countries do announce new funding to support loss and damage in recent days, including New Zealand ($20 million) and Austria (50 million euros). Germany and Denmark pledged more than 170 million euros for the "Global Shield," a new fund that will help to lower income countries cope with climate disasters. Negotiations over loss and damage are expected to continue.

Germany and the United States announced over $250 million in resources to support Egypt’s clean energy economy. The program will deploy new wind and solar energy while decommissioning inefficient natural gas generation. It is also expected to enhance energy security by freeing up over two billion cubic meters of gas.

A new site
Climate Trace
was opened, showing from where exactly greenhouse gas emissions came from. The map is open to the public. The aim is to provide public with correct information as self-reported information is often unreliable, especially about methane. The data is based on measurements from satellites, and sensors on land and on ships and planes.

Over 150 states pledged to curb methane emissions. China did not join this undertaking and refused to commit to provide economic assistance to vulnerable countries. This has been interpreted as a walk back from its diplomatic strategy to create strong links with the developing world.

Plant-based treaty advocates

A coalition of organisations headed by NGO ProVeg International erected the first-ever pavilion dedicated to the climate impact of food at an international climate conference. The pavilion is called Food4Climate and participants all seek food systems change. Participants include Upfield, Oatly, Impossible Foods, the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food), and the Jeremy Coller Foundation.

On 11 November, celebrities, politicians, and businesses delivered a letter to COP27 President Sameh Shoukry calling for COP27 to adopt a global plant-based treaty. The treaty calls for:

* an end to the expansion of animal agriculture;
* the promotion of a shift to sustainable plant-based diets;
* and an effort to “reforest and rewild” planet Earth.

Those advocating for a plant-based treaty also urge the adoption of a Soil Treaty at COP27.

On 12 November, Nitin Mehta the founder of Indian Cultural Centre of London wrote in ''The Sunday Guardian'' that if COP27 delegates do not decree that humans "abandon meat, fish, eggs and dairy" then COP27 will be a failure. As she waited in line at COP27 for a vegan burger, Sarah Garry of the British Society of Soil Science told CNBC that the vendor was the only place selling vegetarian food at the event plagued by logistics issues. Reuters reported that grilled meat and activists protesting animal agriculture are very visible at COP27, but governments, many of which heavily subsidize animal agriculture, have made no proposals to cut production of animal agriculture products. Instead governments are proposing controversial technical proposals to capture methane from animals or doctor their feed to make them produce less methane. Supporters of the plant-based treaty handed out free vegan burgers at the event.

Outcomes

At the conference, a loss and damage fund was agreed for the first time, considered a significant achievement. However, a commitment to phase out fossil fuels was not made.

Reception

Before the summit and protests

Climate protests are common at each annual negotiation, and in previous years there have been sit-ins, marches, hunger strikes, and other forms of civil disobedience to call attention to the urgency climate change.

Ahead of the 2022 summit, the choice of Egypt as a host country attracted attention, in particular in regards to the country's human rights record, which ''The New York Times'' described as "abysmal," and fossil fuel use. Issues raised by critics included the authoritarian political system, mass imprisonment and curbs on civil society and dissent since 2013, under the leadership of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. International human rights organizations reported that there are about 60,000 political prisoners in Egypt. Imprisoned Egyptian activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah criticized COP27 taking place in Egypt, and stated that "Of all the countries to host they chose the one banning protest and sending everyone to prison, which shows how the world is handling this issue." Naomi Klein, Bill McKibben and British Green Party MP Caroline Lucas are among the signatories who have signed a letter detailing their concerns about holding COP27 in Egypt.

On 15 July 2022, a White House adviser, Jerome Foster II, and a British climate justice activist, Elijah Mckenzie-Jackson, wrote a letter to the UNFCCC condemning the choice of Egypt as host of the COP27. The letter written to Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary of UNFCCC, requested it to move the conference to another safer African country due to concerns over LGBT rights, women's rights and civil rights suppression. Various human rights groups, including Amnesty International, viewed COP27 as an opportunity for Egypt to lift restrictions on civic space, and advocated for it to release its political prisoners and create a safe environment for advocates after COP27 ends.

Human Rights Watch expressed concerns regarding the state of freedom of expression in Egypt, and questioned to what extent it would be possible to protest in a country that has essentially banned all demonstrations and criminalized free assembly. On 12 September 2022, Human Rights Watch published a report based on interviews with more than a dozen activists, academics, scientists, and journalists working on environmental issues in Egypt. The report suggests that restrictions from the Egyptian government on independent nongovernmental organizations, including environmental groups, has curtailed organizations' ability to carry out independent advocacy and field work towards protecting the natural environment. In October 2022, the environment director at Human Rights Watch, Richard Pearshouse, stated that Egypt has threatened to derail meaningful global climate action by silencing the country's independent environmentalists before COP27.

When the official smartphone app for COP27 was released in late October, various human rights and security experts, such as Hossam Bahgat, discovered that it asks for various and unreasonable permissions for access to user data, such as emails and location tracking, which could be used by the Egyptian government for surveillance of attendants.

An Egyptian-American, Sherif Osman criticized the authorities in Egypt before the country hosted the COP27 climate conference. He also urged people to organize demonstrations during the summit. In a video on his YouTube channel, he said that “people must wake up and take to the streets”. On 6 November 2022, Osman was arrested by the UAE authorities, outside a restaurant in Dubai. An Arab League entity, Egypt requested the arrest on charges including "speaking negatively against government institutions”. Osman’s fiance, Saija Virta said she feared that he might face possible extradition to Egypt. On 21 December 2022, Osman was announced to be deported soon from his detention in the UAE. However, the concern for his safety remained the same since it wasn’t told whether he would be deported to Egypt or the United States. Rights groups have expressed concerns that, if deported to Egypt, Osman could be put at significant risk of abuse and torture.

Alaa Abd El-Fattah hunger strike

The British-Egyptian writer and activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah, who has been imprisoned for most of the previous nine years for his activism and criticism of Egypt’s government, had been on hunger strike since late October, and his case has become a central topic at COP27, especially after he reportedly stopped drinking water at the beginning of the summit. International pressure mounted on Egypt to release him: several world leaders, including British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, raised his case directly with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and Volker Türk, United Nations human rights chief, also urged Egypt to release him and other political prisoners. El-Fattah rose to prominence in Egypt's 2011 uprising.

At a news conference held by Sanaa Seif, sister of Alaa, the Egyptian parliament member Amr Darwish, confronted the speaker from the audience and was escorted out of the room by United Nations security officers. Representatives of nongovernmental groups at the conference threatened to walk out if the activist dies. El-Fattah's sister told reporters, "I urge President Biden to do something, whatever way out that is needed."

Protests during the conference

On 15 November 2022, Polish climate activists Dominika Lasota and Wiktoria Jędroszkowiak, and Ukrainian activists Svitlana Romanko, Valeria Bondarieva and Viktoriya Ball protested during a session held by Russians, whose 150-person delegation included 33 fuel lobbyists. The activists called out to the Russian delegation, stating that the Russians were war criminals who didn't have the right to be present at the conference and didn't deserve respect. Lasota called the Russians "despicable" ( pl, podłymi) and held up a banner "Fossil Fuels Kill". The activists were forced out by security personnel. Justin Rowlatt of BBC News was also removed from the Russian session by security personnel after he asked the Russian delegation, "Do you plan to compensate for the damage made to the natural environment in Ukraine?".

See also

* 2022 in climate change
* Climate change in Egypt
* Loss and damage
* Global Assembly

References

Sources

*
*

External links

COP27 official website

UNFCCC web page about COP27

COP27: Why is the summit so important?
at BBC News

{{Authority control

United Nations
2022 in Egypt
2022 in international relations
2022 in the environment
Climate change controversies
Conferences in Sharm El Sheikh
November 2022 events in Asia
United Nations climate change conferences