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Another year, another UN conference of the parties (COP) to discuss the international community’s response to climate change. 

Unfortunately, this year’s COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt was among the more disappointing COPs, with little accomplished in terms of ratcheting up countries’ emission reduction efforts. It was also the most chaotic with food and water shortages, as well as an “elusive” COP president in the form of Egyptian Foreign Affairs Minister Sameh Shoukry. 

However, with some big developments in terms of “loss and damage” funding for developing nations, it was not inconsequential. Below is a summary of the conference in 10 points covering its five greatest achievements and five most notable failures.

Successes

1. Loss and Damage Fund

The text of COP27’s final agreement will include a commitment to “establish new funding arrangements for assisting developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change, in responding to loss and damage.”

Though funding details were left open to further deliberation, Shoukry called for a committee with representatives from 24 states to work out which countries and institutions will contribute to a prospective fund, and what those contributions will look like. 

The commitment to establish a loss and damage fund was roundly hailed as a “landmark” achievement, though there’s considerable consternation around the practical aspects and political risks the fund will necessarily entail. 

2. Indonesia’s $20 Billion Transition Package

A Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) package of $20 billion in public and private finance, supported by a coalition of countries and Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) member institutions, will be used to help Indonesia transition off coal in the “largest single carbon-cutting deal in history” and “a potential game changer”. 

Technically, the parties struck the deal at the concurrent G20 meeting in Bali last week, but its occurrence at the same time as COP27 was no coincidence. 

3. Call to Reform International Lending

Regarded by Bloomberg on Friday as perhaps COP27’s “biggest win yet”, the draft text of the conference’s final agreement calls on “multilateral development banks to contribute to significantly increasing climate ambition using the breadth of their policy and financial instruments for greater results.”

The language reflects efforts by financial leaders, including Barbados prime minister Mia Mottley and US treasury secretary Janet Yellen, to help small and developing nations access climate-related capital at more accessible lending interest rates. 

4. US and China Resume Climate Discussions

In a positive sign for global climate cooperation efforts, US climate envoy John Kerry and China’s climate envoy Xie Zhenhua confirmed the two countries are back on speaking terms at a COP27 press conference. 

5. President Lula Gets “Rock Star” Welcome, Promises to Save Rainforest

Brazil's new president elect, former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (aka “Lula”), reportedly received “a superstar welcome” and pledged to “spare no efforts to have zero deforestation and the degradation of our biomes by 2030”. He also said Brazil would push to host COP30 in 2025, and hold it in the Amazon. 

Lula will soon be replacing current Brazilian president Jair Bolsenaro, who has not been a particularly climate-friendly president. 

Failures

1. Emission Reduction Efforts Flounder

Despite an EU threat to “walk out” absent a commitment to ratchet up emission reduction efforts, COP27’s final agreement made no progress on the issue, leaving the world on track to blow past the Paris Agreement’s 1.5 degrees celsius warming limit goal. And that’s just based on national pledges, not even taking into account the actions necessary to deliver on them. 

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock claimed the effort to bump up emission reduction targets was blocked by “an alliance of oil-rich nations and major emitters.” 

2. Mitigated Work Programme

Climate negotiations among 190 or so countries’ delegates are difficult. It’s even worse when everyone is using different metrics and timelines for emission reductions. 

COP27 delegates established a “mitigation work programme” with common standards for nations to discuss and work out ongoing emission reduction efforts. Some nations pushed for the programme to continue through 2030, but met opposition and compromised at running it through 2026 with an extension option. 

The outcomes of the work programme were also neutered to be “non-prescriptive, non-punitive, facilitative, respectful of national sovereignty and national circumstances, and take into account the nationally determined nature of nationally determined contributions, and will not result in new targets or goals beyond those agreed in the Paris Agreement.”

3. Sketchy Carbon Market Rules

Last year in Glasgow, delegates worked out framework rules for global carbon markets in which countries and companies could purchase and sell offsets. Those rules were fleshed out a bit more in Sharm El-Sheikh, but apparently not very well. 

Sam Van den plas, policy director at Carbon Market Watch, commented that “[i]nstead of agreeing on carbon markets with exemplary transparency, robust governance, and stringent accounting provisions, governments did not rule out arbitrary secrecy and weak oversight. The carbon market spirit of Glasgow turned into the offsetting ghost of Sharm-el-Sheikh, which risks haunting effective climate action for years to come.”

4. Bad Host

The decision to host COP27 in Egypt received justifiable criticism due to the country’s intolerance of public protest and government criticism. 

Though a small area dubbed the “blue zone” was under United Nations control, and provided a space for protests during the conference, protesters were advised that they “should not seek to point a finger of blame.” 

Technically, this is requested at all COPs, but was a rule “being stringently observed in Egypt” for obvious reasons.

5. No Call to Phase Down Fossil Fuels

At COP26, there was a movement among various nations to include coal phase out language in the final agreement, but it was ultimately weakened to instead call for a “phase down” of coal at India’s urging.

This year, India moved for language calling for all fossil fuels to be phased down. Some viewed this as an effort to take the focus off coal, on which India relies heavily, but the EU and several other countries got on board with it anyways, apparently regarding fossil fuel phase down language as nonetheless worth having.

In the final COP27 agreement, the whole effort was totally scrapped. 

(Photo: Stockholm International Water Institute)

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