Three key topics that will be discussed at COP27

As COP27 looms on the horizon, negotiators are preparing to discuss some of the most pressing issues facing our planet. Here are three key topics that we can expect to come up during the talks.

Credits to Reuters

COP27 will kick off in two weeks. Expectations are high. And a first disappointment has already come through. Coca-Cola was recently announced to be one of the main sponsors of the UN climate conference.

It is bewildering that the world’s biggest plastic polluter sponsors the world’s primary conference to tackle the climate crisis. The American giant produces 120 billion single-use plastic bottles a year – and 99% of plastics are made from fossil fuels. If you are wondering, this is bad for the plastic emergency and the climate too.

The collaboration with Coca-Cola undermines the very objective of the event it seeks to sponsor. But deep inside we are all full of contradictions, aren’t we? So, let’s forget this sponsoring incident and shift the focus to the beating heart of COP27. There are three key topics on the agenda that will be shining under the warm sun of Sharm El Sheikh.

1.       Mitigation

COP27 was labeled as “implementation COP”. Indeed, all eyes will be on the implementation of targets and monitoring of progress to date. 2022 is meant to be a year when countries update and increase the ambition of their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) – their promises to cut emissions in the future.

So far, only a few countries have submitted more ambitious NDCs, and no major economies. As we learned from last year, countries are encouraged to submit revised targets but are not obliged to do that. Even more, NDCs are not legally binding and their implementation is far from guaranteed. As I wrote when covering COP26, hope and aspirations are not enough. We need climate action on an unprecedented scale and speed.

2.       Adaptation

This is a big theme, especially for the developing world: how will poor countries adapt to climate change? How are they going to re-invent their economies? Will they spend money on the infrastructure to prepare for a world that is warmer and where climate disasters will be more frequent?

At the closing of COP26 in Glasgow last year, one of the headline questions centered on how countries would address the need for finance to address loss and damage – those impacts from climate change that are so severe communities are simply unable to adapt to them.

Developed nations have always pushed back on the topic, fearing to be faced with liability claims and the risk to pay more money. At COP26, the United States and European Union agreed to establish the Glasgow Dialogue on Loss and Damage, dedicated to discussing possible funding arrangements and set to run through 2024. Achievements so far? Zero.

Originally, funding arrangements for loss and damage were not included in the agenda of COP27 but developing nations have requested to add it. This will be discussed on the first day of the talks and will call developed and developing nations to find an agreement. Honestly, this is challenging, and a lack of agreement could derail proceedings at the climate summit right from the start.

3.       Finance

This will be the hottest discussion point. In 2009, developed countries committed to mobilize USD 100 billion per year to developing countries to support their climate action. They failed to do so. A report published in September by the OECD found that developed nations have only delivered USD 83 billion.

Also, this money would only be a drop in the ocean compared to the trillions of dollars needed every year by 2030 to face the climate crisis. A major challenge will be to agree on a new collective finance goal, conscious of the gap between what is pledged and what is delivered. This was already an issue at previous COPs, will this time get better?

And there is an even more important question: how is this money accessed? Much of it is offered as loans, which come with high interest rates because money is lent in high-risk emerging countries. So, one day, someone will have to pay the (expensive) bill. Wish you won’t be there.

Also, this money is rarely “new money”. They are resources already planned for developing nations and simply “reallocated” through an accounting mechanism. But developing nations need “new money” and not what was already planned to be delivered.

This situation could trigger a dramatic breakdown in diplomatic relations between developed and developing nations. The latter are becoming increasingly frustrated by keep asking for money that never arrives. Have you ever watched “Waiting for Godot”? Pretty much the same.

COP27 is coming up fast and with it a slew of pressing climate change issues. I have outlined three key topics that will come up during the talks. Now it’s time to wait and see what happens when delegates from around the world gather in the sunny Sharm. My wish? That this conference will truly be an “implementation COP”.