COP27 to Commence in Egypt and Why We Need to Care

After a year of unprecedented weather conditions and natural disasters, world leaders meet in Egypt for this year’s COP27 to discuss the ongoing fight against climate change.

Source: William Gibson (Unsplash)

Egypt is gearing up to host the 27th annual Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP27), due to take place from Sunday 6th November until 18th November. These negotiations will set the tone for how nations around the world continue to respond to the global climate crisis. 

What do we know?

The annual climate conference began in 1995 to address the rise in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and prevent dangerous effects of human activity on the climate. Well known extensions of the original treaty are the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and 2015 Paris Agreement.

Last year’s COP26 marked the signing of the Glasgow Climate Pact and Paris Rulebook agreement, where nearly 200 nations agreed to review and strengthen their emissions targets by the end of 2022, of which only 24 countries have partially or fully met. It has been acknowledged that more drastic and immediate action needs to be taken to mitigate the effects of climate change. 

Last year saw countries around the world experience unprecedented weather extremities. This summer, Europe experienced record temperatures exceeding 40°C, causing droughts so severe that rivers dried up to expose World War I battleships. Floods wreaked havoc in north-east Bangladesh and parts of India, displacing more than 9.5 million people, those of whom were still recovering from floods in May. Just a few days ago, the UN released a report concluding that the planet has already warmed by around 1.1°C - with 1.5°C being the point beyond which scientists say chances of catastrophic climate change will notably increase.

The COP27 Agenda

The COP27 will act as a forum for the international community to respond to an increasingly urgent climate crisis. This year, the talks will centre around reducing emissions, helping countries prepare and deal with climate change, and securing technical support and funding for developing countries to achieve those aims. Similar to COP26, it is also likely that discussions will push for greater scrutiny and transparency of business decisions and their impacts on the environment. Currently, a third of the UK’s major businesses have pledged to eliminate their net contribution to carbon emissions by 2050. 

Special attention will be paid to the losses and damages of the immediate impacts of climate change - especially in poor, developing countries that least contribute to global warming. Tensions may soar during discussions of who is financially responsible for the costs of global warming, as poorer nations experience the brunt of climate impact that richer polluting nations are largely responsible for. The US has opposed the demand to fund poorer countries in environmental aid, partly due to fear of being held legally liable for climate change. This is despite the fact richer countries have continued to fail in meeting a decade-old promise to deliver an annual 100 billion dollars by 2020 towards climate initiatives, which the UN has urged them to double. 

Given that this conference is the first climate summit taking place in Africa since 2016, many diplomats have expressed hope that more focus will be directed towards the continent, which faces some of the worst challenges of climate change.

Why should we care?

Oil and gas company BP’s ‘carbon footprint’ campaign has led people to view the cause as an issue of individual responsibility, shifting attention away from necessary systemic solutions. Being well informed is a powerful act of initiative in an era of misinformation, clickbait headlines, and reductive infographics. Understanding COP27 and its agenda helps us stay alert and up to date with the issues being targeted at the forefront of legislation, measures that are meant to comprehensively tackle the big picture of climate change.

We have seen with our own eyes the devastating and uncontrollable effects of climate change. Forests, coral reefs and cute animals aside; no matter how much money we have or where we live, climate change will inevitably impact all of us. We can no longer wait to see the effects of the greed of corporations and our endless consumption. It is paramount to call for immediate action to be taken, chiefly by the polluting corporations. 

After all, a parting of the Red Sea can only happen if there still is a sea left.