What is the COP?
The Conference of Parties (COP) is the decision-making body of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The 1st Conference (COP 1) took place in Berlin, Germany in 1995. Since then, the annual summit has become the birthplace of significant climate legislation, including the Kyoto Protocol (COP 3), the Copenhagen Accord (COP 15), and the Paris Agreement (COP 21). Signed by over 190 countries, the latter reinforced the global commitment to keeping global temperature rise well below two degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century, with efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees. At the time of COP 27, however, current policies put the chance of global temperature rise above two degrees at more than 90 percent.Financing climate action
Over a decade ago, during COP 15 in Copenhagen, Denmark, developed countries agreed to mobilize 100 billion U.S. dollars each year until 2020 for climate finance, i.e., for helping developing countries pay for climate adaptation and mitigation measures. Nevertheless, that target has consistently failed to be met. In 2021, climate finance mobilized by developed countries stood at 89.6 billion U.S. dollars, the highest annual value on record. Another source of criticism regarding climate finance is that loans reign as the main mechanism used, further burdening many already-indebted developing nations. At COP 27, the debate continued regarding setting a new collective quantified target on climate finance to go into effect from 2024, considering the needs and priorities of developing nations.In addition to climate adaptation and mitigation support, COP 27 saw a push for loss and damage finance. The term loss and damage within the UNFCCC context refers to the impacts of climate change that have already taken place or cannot be avoided by mitigation – including the loss of land, lives, and livelihood – and that disproportionately affect low-income countries that have made little contribution to emissions in the past centuries. The loss and damage agreement closed in Sharm El Sheikh was an historic decision; it was the first time countries recognized the demand for finance to respond to loss and damage associated with climate disasters. The details of such a breakthrough agreement are scheduled to be discussed in the subsequent climate summits.
Renewables and the path to energy security
With Russia’s war in Ukraine leading natural gas and fuel prices to soar and threatening energy security worldwide, the deployment of renewables took the spotlight once more, as a reliable alternative to volatile fossil fuels supplies. In Europe, climate targets such as the Fit for 55 and RePowerEU packages see renewable sources making up 40 percent of the region’s energy mix by mid-century. Across the Atlantic, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) signed in August 2022 has become one of the most important climate legislations ever passed in the U.S. Policy provisions in the IRA are forecast to boost the share of clean sources in electricity generation to at least 60 percent by 2030, as opposed to the 46 percent expected without the IRA.At COP 27, a call to accelerate renewable energy deployment was included in the discussions for the first time ever. The milestone was however weakened by deploying the term “low-emissions energy”, which sometimes refers to natural gas. The debate of phasing down or phasing out all fossil fuels, not only coal, will potentially continue in future conferences, with pressure building for a final decision on eliminating such sources from the energy grids to be reached as soon as possible.