COP27: The last ray of hope for this dimming world?

Science has established beyond doubt that the window for climate action is closing rapidly. In November 2022, Egypt will host the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP27) in Sharm El-Sheikh, to build on previous successes and pave the way for future ambition. COP27 marks 30 years since the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted and seven years since the Paris Agreement was agreed upon at COP21. With the strapline, 'Together for implementation,' COP27 will be an African COP and the first of two COPS in the Middle East and the North Africa (MENA) region. COP26 in 2021 was jointly hosted in Glasgow, Scotland by the UK and Italy. The outcome of COP26 - the Glasgow Climate Pact- is the fruit of intense negotiations among almost 200 countries over two weeks, strenuous formal and informal work for over many months, and constant engagement both in person and virtually for nearly two years. Since 2015, under the legally-binding Paris Agreement treaty, almost all countries have committed to the following.  Keep the rise in global average temperature to well below 2C, and ideally 1.5C, above pre-industrial levels.  Strengthen the ability to adapt to climate change and bring resilience.  Align finance flows with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development. This year's UN Climate Conference will take place against a backdrop of global crises. The ripple effects of COVID-19 and Russia's invasion of Ukraine have sent food and energy prices soaring to record. Unprecedented climate disasters are widespread and devastating disruptions in historic levels of rain, heat, drought, fires, and storms in almost every corner of the world. From devastating floods in Pakistan and Africa to withering heat in India, rising temperatures are wreaking havoc on communities around the globe. No one feels these effects more acutely than the more than 3.3 billion people living in countries highly vulnerable to climate change. A climate catastrophe in Pakistan claimed the lives of more than 1000 people and displaced tens of millions. Pakistan's climate change minister, Sherry Rehman, is headed to Egypt for the UN COP27 climate summit with one goal: finally getting the world to commit to helping countries like hers deal with the growing " loss and damage" caused by global warming. The nation is struggling to find the funding required to recover from unprecedented flooding, inundating a third of the country. "We have repeatedly made the moral case for loss and damage compensation at different platforms," Rehman told the Thomas Reuters Foundation."We will deliver the same message at COP27." Rehman, alongside other officials and climate experts in Pakistan, is calling for establishing a dedicated "Loss and Damage Finance Facility." They see COP27 as an opportunity not only for governments to set up such a fund but also to commit an amount to launch it. Pakistan is a "climate victim" that has grabbed the world's attention and empathy. A recent assessment led by Pakistan's government has put the cost of recovery from the floods at more than $16 billion, based on impacts to transport and communication infrastructure, agriculture, the food supply, and housing, among others. That sum is impossible for Pakistan - with its economy already wrecked by spiraling inflation- to cover on its own, said its climate change minister, Rehman. In contrast, in response to the Pakistan floods, the United Nations started an appeal to raise $160 million, which was increased to $816 million to provide healthcare, food, shelter, and clean drinking water to 9.5 million people. In October, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Pakistan, Julien Harneis told the journalists that only $90 million was received so far."Notre Dame may be iconic, but it was still a brick-and-mortar building," Alam said. "Here we are talking about some 30 million homeless Pakistanis." At the opening of the COP27 UN climate conference, Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, President of UAE, said that UAE is considered a responsible supplier of power and that "it will continue to play this role for as long as the world needs oil and gas." The president's comment came after UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said the war in Ukraine has "exposed the profound risks of our fossil fuel addiction " and called for an end to dependence on fossil fuels and the building of coal plants. One of the largest holders of limit reserves within the Opec+ coalition, the UAE in 2018 set sights on raising its crude capacity from 3.5mn b/d to 5mn b/d by 2030. Argus estimates UAE production rose by 10,000 b/d on the month to 3.19mn b/d in September. The UAE will host the COP28 UN climate summit next year, and the al-Nahyan reiterated the country was the first in the Middle East to set a target of becoming a net zero carbon economy by 2050. He stressed that oil and gas in the UAE are one of the least carbon intensives in the world. Coal and fossil fuels were directly targeted for the first time in a COP text last year. But the global energy crisis has made the issue of gas as a shift fuel a flashpoint, with some African countries likely to ask for financial support to develop their resources and economies.

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Shreya is an International Relations researcher at Serenity