COP27

HIGHLIGHTS: UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Egypt

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HIGHLIGHTS: UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Egypt

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

This year’s United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference or COP27 is happening from November 6 to 18, 2022, in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

Hosted by Egypt, COP27 hopes to be the “turning point where the world came together and demonstrated the requisite political will to take on the climate challenge through concerted, collaborative and impactful action.”

Ahead of the climate talks, different UN bodies released reports about the state of the Earth’s climate. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said a 43% reduction in emissions by 2030 is needed to limit warming to 1.5ºC above pre-industrial temperatures. The World Meteorological Organization said hikes in the atmospheric concentration of all three greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide – were now all at new record levels. The UN Environment Programme, meanwhile, said “woefully inadequate” government pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions put the planet on track for an average 2.8ºC temperature rise this century.

For the Philippines, COP27 comes on the heels of Severe Tropical Storm Paeng (Nalgae), which affected almost the entire country and left over a hundred people dead in its wake. As one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, there is much at stake for the Philippines in COP27, especially when it comes to the issues of loss and damage, mitigation and adaptation, and climate finance. 

Bookmark and refresh this page for real-time news, photos, videos, and context and analyses on COP27.

LATEST UPDATES

US working to sign on to loss and damage agreement – sources

Reuters

The United States is working to find a way it can agree to proposals put forward at the COP27 summit in Egypt on creating a fund to help developing countries meet the cost of climate disasters, a source close to the negotiations said on Saturday, November 19.

Another US source familiar with the negotiations said the US had been “deeply involved” in the negotiations on the ‘loss and damage’ deal.

‘Tiny’ things left to resolve for climate deal, COP27 presidency spokesman says

Reuters

“Tiny, tiny” things need to be resolved before a climate deal is finalized at the COP27 summit in Egypt, Wael Aboulmagd, the special representative to the COP27 president, said on Saturday, November 19.

“We’re doing our best. Tiny, tiny things to work out,” he told Reuters when asked whether a deal was near.

China’s climate envoy expects cooperation with US to continue

Reuters

China’s top climate negotiator Xie Zhenhua said on Saturday, November 19, he expects to continue direct cooperation on climate change with his US counterpart John Kerry after the COP27 summit taking place in Egypt comes to a close.

China and the United States are the world’s two largest emitters of greenhouse gases and cooperation between them is seen as vital to international efforts to avert the worst impacts of climate change.

Read more here.

COP27 draft climate deal published but gaps remain

Reuters

The UN climate agency on Saturday, November 19, published an updated draft of a proposed final agreement for the COP27 summit, fleshing out some key parts of the deal countries are struggling to reach.

The document, which forms the overall political deal for COP27, would need approval from the nearly 200 countries at the climate summit in Egypt. Negotiators will spend the next few hours studying the texts and deciding whether they can back them.

The so-called ‘cover decision’ sits alongside a host of other agreements still subject to intense negotiation a day after the summit was due to have closed.

The draft contained only a partial text on the contentious issue of “loss and damage” payments to countries hit by climate-driven disasters. It left a placeholder in the section for funding arrangements on loss and damage where text could be added later if countries reach agreement.

In line with earlier iterations, the draft did not contain a reference requested by India and some other delegations to phasing down use of “all fossil fuels.” It instead referred to a phase down of coal only, as agreed at last year’s summit.

In an attempt to close the yawning gap between current climate pledges and the far deeper cuts needed to avert disastrous climate change, the draft requests that countries which have not yet done so upgrade their 2030 emissions cutting targets by the end of 2023.

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COP27 nears breakthrough on climate finance in scramble for final deal

COP27 nears breakthrough on climate finance in scramble for final deal

Environmental groups and science advocates gather in protest vs ‘epic fail’ at climate talks

Rappler.com
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IN PHOTOS: Scenes from the United Nations climate talks

IN PHOTOS: Scenes from the United Nations climate talks

France sees risk of 1.5°C objective ‘dying’ at Egypt conference

Reuters

France said on Saturday, November 19, that COP27 climate negotiations in Sharm-el-Sheik, Egypt, still had not produced an agreement capable of containing the rise in global temperatures at this stage.

“We can’t let the 1.5°c climate warming objective die in Sharm-el-Sheik,” French Energy Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher said on Twitter

Egypt calls on nations to ‘rise to the occasion’ as COP27 success in balance

Reuters

Sameh Shoukry, president of the COP27 climate summit, told the nearly 200 nations gathered in Egypt to “rise to the occasion” on Saturday, November 19, as the success of the conference hung in the balance.

Speaking a day after the summit was supposed to end, Shoukry added he knew there was a lot of “dissatisfaction” among all parties, but called on nations to show determination to reach a consensus.

“The issue now rests with the will of the parties. It is the parties who must rise to the occasion and take upon themselves the responsibility of finding the areas of convergence,” he said.

A final text to conclude the summit has yet to be agreed with outstanding issues including whether a new fund would be created to help nations with the damage wrought by climate change and whether to call for a phase down of all fossil fuels.

“The (draft) text does keep the 1.5 alive,” Shoukry said referring to an aim, already enshrined by previous climate summits, to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Parties to ‘further explore’ texts on 3 contentious issues

Jee Y. Geronimo