COP 27 In Sharm- Al-Sheikh Failed To Ensure A World Free Of Fossil Fuels

The scale of influence of the fossil-fuel industry and its supporting states was on full display in Sharm-Al-Sheikh,Egypt during the UN climate dialogue. The UN climate talks which closed in Egypt today started to address the symptoms of the climate crisis in a breakthrough decision for the most vulnerable, but did little to address the causes of global warming. Since there was further weakening of language excluding fossil fuels.

The “balance” of this COP was between (i) desires of the developed world to see greater mitigation ambition and to expand the list of who is responsible for paying for climate action and (ii) the developing world’s demands for recognition and support in the face of escalating climate impacts. A lot of compromises were made and the baseline of emissions reductions achieved in Glasgow was barely protected.

The “balance” of this COP was between (i) desires of the developed world to see greater mitigation ambition and to expand the list of who is responsible for paying for climate action and (ii) the developing world’s demands for recognition and support in the face of escalating climate impacts. A lot of compromises were made and the baseline of emissions reductions achieved in Glasgow was barely protected.

On dealing with the “loss and damage” caused by the impact of the climate crisis, more progress was made than many believed possible, with a commitment to set up a financial support structure for the most vulnerable by the next COP in 2023 as costs from extreme weather soar to over $200 billion annually.

New language including “low emissions” energy alongside renewables as the energy sources of the future is a significant loophole, as the undefined term could be used to justify new fossil fuel development against the clear guidance of the IPCC and IEA.

In the dying hours of the COP, the deal was weakened with the 1.5C target relegated to the section on Science, whereas in Glasgow it sat alongside the solutions to the climate crisis in the Mitigation section.

COP27 – a multilateral process – was impacted by the food and energy crisis gripping the world this year, and a new geopolitics that is shaped by an increasingly multipolar world and the ever increasing impact climate change is having on that geopolitics.

The writer of this article is Dr. Seema Javed, a known Environmentalist, Journalist and Communications Expert