Meeting in Egypt are world leaders, climate activists, and NGOs to discuss how to protect the planet's future in the coming COP27. So what is COP27 and why does it matter?
The UN Climate Summit: What is It?
Every year, the UN hosts climate conferences where states may decide on actions to keep global temperature increases to a minimum.
They are known as COPs, or "Conference of the Parties," for short. The parties are the participating nations that ratified the first UN climate accord in 1992.
So why is COP becoming such a hot topic these years? Well, global warming is becoming serious and real more than ever before, and human-caused emissions, mostly from the combustion of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas, are to blame.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is comprised of climate experts from the UN, global temperatures have increased by 1.1C and are on track to reach 1.5C. (IPCC). The IPCC predicts that half of humanity might be exposed to heat and humidity that pose a hazard to life if temperatures increase by 1.7 to 1.8C over values of the 1850s.
In order to avoid this, 194 nations committed to "pursue measures" to keep global temperature increases to 1.5C by signing the Paris Agreement in 2015.
COP27: What will happen?
From November 6 to November 18, the COP27 conference will be held at Sharm el-Sheikh, an Egyptian beach tourist town. This year 27th edition is expected to be a challenging follow-up to the historic Cop26 summit in Glasgow last year.
In a series of private sessions, world leaders will convene and provide instructions to their deputies on how to get the required agreement. They will then leave, leaving their representatives—usually environment ministers or other top officials—to handle the difficult discussions. On Friday, November 18, the negotiations are supposed to finish at 6 p.m. However, based on previous COP meetings, it is probable that they will continue into Saturday and even even Sunday.
There are more than 200 invited governments. Rishi Sunak, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, is present despite having earlier stated he would not.He will call on world leaders to migrate "further and quicker" to renewable energy in a speech on Monday at COP27. He will claim that the necessity of eliminating reliance on fossil fuels was "enforced" by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Boris Johnson, a former prime minister, will also attend, although King Charles won't due to official advice. He did have a pre-conference party at Buckingham Palace, though. Although Russian delegations are still anticipated to attend, Vladimir Putin is not scheduled to go. China and other nations have not made their leaders' attendance known. Egypt, the hosts, urged nations to set aside their differences and "show leadership" on the subject of climate change. Businesses, think tanks, community organisations, religious organisations, and environmental charity will all participate.
COP27 will be an African COP and the first of two COPS in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) area, with the theme "Together for implementation."
The key goals and visions of COP27 are:
Mitigation: limit global warming to well below 2c and work hard to keep the 1.5 c target alive. This year should witness the implementation of the Glasgow pact call to review ambition in NDCs, and create a work program for ambition on mitigation.
Adaptation: COP27 makes the crucially needed progress and urge all parties to demonstrate the necessary political will to capture and assess the progress towards enhancing resilience and assist the most vulnerable communities.
Finance: Progress on delivery of the annual USD 100 billion to build more trust between developed and developing countries, showing that actual commitments are being fulfilled.
Collaboration: Turn the Glasgow outcome into action, and commence with its implementation. Governments, the private sector and civil society need to work, in tandem, to transform the way in which human interact with the planet. Introduce new solutions and innovations that help alleviate the adverse impacts of climate change. Replicate and rapidly upscale all other climate-friendly solutions towards implementation in developing countries.
In short, COP27 will concentrate on three key topics:
Emissions reduction;
Aiding nations in their efforts to combat and prepare for climate change;
Securing the above-mentioned technical assistance and financial help for emerging nations.
Following up on certain issues left unresolved or unaddressed at COP26 are:
Funding to assist nations in recovering from the consequences of climate change rather than merely preparing for them;
creation of a worldwide carbon market to assess the costs of emissions on goods and services on a global scale;
Strengthen the pledges to cut back on coal use.
To watch COP27 live, please visit: https://unfccc.int/cop27#events
Participate in the The UN Campaign for Individual Action: https://www.un.org/en/actnow/