Page 4 - GLNG Week 47 2022

GLNG COMMENTARY GLNG

Climate paralysis at

COP27 as no progress

made on 1.5 degrees

COMMENTARY COP finished two days late on November 20 forward and build on what we agreed in Glas-
without any new agreements on climate change gow,” Timmermans said, “Our message to part-
targets or emissions reductions, although a deal ners is clear: We cannot accept that 1.5C dies
was hammered out to set up an as yet uncosted here and today.”
loss and damage fund. Meanwhile, UK lead negotiator and president
The conference’s final communique reaf- of COP26 Alok Sharma was extremely critical of
firmed the UN and governments’ desire to meet the lack of progress at COP27, suggesting that a
the 2015 Paris Agreement’s 1.5 degree goals, but whole year had been wasted.
did not make any new agreements that are bind- “The text right now does not go beyond Glas-
ing on governments on how to it. gow and it doesn’t even take us to Glasgow,” he
The most controversial move was the disap- said.
pearance of any commitment to cause emissions The document said that a 43% reduction in
to peak by 2025, while there was no mention of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions was needed by
any general fossil fuel phase out. 2030, relative to 2019 levels, if the world was to
There was no progress on coal in the docu- meet 1.5 degrees.
ment, called a cover decision, with the COP26 All this, apart from the loss and damage fund,
phrasing of a “phase down” being maintained, is effectively a repeat of the final Glasgow deci-
while fossil fuels subsidies should be “phased sion, suggesting that COP27 failed to make any
out,” again repeating the words of COP26 in real progress and that powerful interests in Asia
Glasgow. and the Middle East again managed to stymie
On the bright side, the UN stressed that there any improved targets for coal or emissions.
was an “urgent need for deep, rapid emissions Put simply, the fight for 1.5 degrees has not
cuts for 1.5C”. yet been won and the battle must go on.
The UN said in a statement: “The package (of
decisions) strengthened action by countries to Loss and damage
cut greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the The UN stressed in its final statement that the
inevitable impacts of climate change, as well most significant achievement was on loss and
as boosting the support of finance, technology damage.
and capacity building needed by developing “This outcome moves us forward,” said
countries.” Simon Stiell, UN Climate Change Executive Sec-
However, there were no high-level targets, retary. “We have determined a way forward on a
merely a long list of reaffirmations by govern- decades-long conversation on funding for loss
ments of existing commitment made in Glasgow. and damage – deliberating over how we address
But the goal of 1.5 degrees is still on the the impacts on communities whose lives and
agenda, even though any deal on binding com- livelihoods have been ruined by the very worst
mitments will now have to wait until future COP impacts of climate change.”
conferences. A new Transitional Committee is to be set up
On the final days of talks on November 19, to recommend how to implement both the new
there were broadly two camps: EU govern- funding arrangements and the fund at COP28
ments wanted a greater commitment to phas- next year. However, there was no mention of
ing out fossil fuels and promoting renewables how much sash the fund would contain.
energy, while Asian and Middle Eastern govern- The good news is that the loss and damage
ments wanted more watered down language in fund will take on the recommendations of the
the final agreements. Santiago Network for Loss and Damage, which
“The EU is united in our ambition to move lay out what developing countries need to repair

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