Cop 27

The little-known talks in Bonn, take place each year ahead of the UN landmark COP climate summits, lay the groundwork for response to global warming Diplomats from around the globe are meeting in the German city of Bonn this week to level out plans that are key to global efforts to stop the planet heating and to adapt to violent weather conditions. The little-known talks, which take place each year ahead of the United Nations landmark COP climate summits, lay the groundwork for humanity's response to global warming. Negotiators from across the world will agree on technical details about how to cut pollution, protect people from a hotter and more hostile environment and move money to pay for it. It will clear the way for bigger political fights at the COP28 conference in the United Arab Emirates next November. The meeting in Bonn gives officials a space both to talk about the outcome of the last climate summit and figure out what is and what's not working in their climate policy, said Alex Scott, a diplomacy expert at the climate think tank E3G in London. “The thing that's different about Bonn is that the politicians aren't there — or very few of them are.” The Bonn conference is the first time climate diplomats will have come together since COP 27 — a tense summit in Egypt late last year where world leaders agreed to set up a fund to pay poor countries for some of the damage wrought by extreme weather. The last-minute deal was a landmark step in rich countries taking respo...

• COP27 is the next meeting of the group of 198 countries that have signed the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. • It will be held in the Egyptian city of Sharm El-Sheikh on 6-18 November. • The UN is urging the world’s industrialized nations to ‘lead by example’ by taking ‘bold and immediate actions’. • Five key issues to watch are nature, food, water, industry decarbonization and climate adaptation. Other commitments included phasing down coal-fired power generation – the first time this has been explicitly included in UN climate talk decisions. There were also agreements to reduce methane emissions, reverse deforestation and land degradation, and pledge more finance to help developing countries cope with climate change. • Mitigation: All parties, especially those in a position to “lead by example”, are urged to take “bold and immediate actions” and to reduce emissions to limit global warming well below 2°C. • Adaptation: Ensure that COP27 makes the “crucially needed progress” towards enhancing climate change resilience and assisting the world’s most vulnerable communities. • Finance: Make significant progress on climate finance, including the delivery of the promised $100 billion per year to assist developing countries. • Collaboration: As the UN negotiations are consensus-based, reaching agreement will require “inclusive and active participation from all stakeholders”. “We trust the world will come together, yet again, to reaffirm its commitment to the global ...

1.5C The Gas The final text of Cop27 contained a provision to boost “low-emissions energy”. That could mean many things, from wind and solar farms to nuclear reactors, and coal-fired power stations fitted with carbon capture and storage. It could also be interpreted to mean gas, which has lower emissions than coal, but is still a major fossil fuel. Many countries at Cop27, particularly those from Africa with large reserves to exploit, came to Sharm el-Sheikh Fossil fuels Last year at Glasgow, a commitment to phase down the use of coal was agreed. It marked the first time a resolution on fossil fuels had been included in the final text – some would say, World Bank reform A growing number of developed and developing countries are calling for urgent changes to the World Bank and other publicly funded finance institutions, which they say have failed to provide the funding needed to help poor countries cut their greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of the climate crisis. Adaptation Building flood defences, preserving wetlands, restoring mangrove swamps and regrowing forests – these measures, and more, can help countries to become more resilient to the impacts of climate breakdown. But poor countries often struggle to gain funding for these efforts. Of the $100bn a year rich countries promised they would receive from 2020 – a promise Tipping points, the IPCC and health Since Cop26, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has published the key parts of its late...

UN Climate Change News, 20 November 2022 – The United Nations Climate Change Conference COP27 closed today with a breakthrough agreement to provide “loss and damage” funding for vulnerable countries hit hard by climate disasters. “This outcome moves us forward,” said Simon Stiell, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary. “We have determined a way forward on a decades-long conversation on funding for loss and damage – deliberating over how we address the impacts on communities whose lives and livelihoods have been ruined by the very worst impacts of climate change.” Set against a difficult geopolitical backdrop, COP27 resulted in countries delivering a Creating a specific fund for loss and damage marked an important point of progress, with the issue added to the official agenda and adopted for the first time at COP27. Governments took the ground-breaking decision to establish new funding arrangements, as well as a dedicated fund, to assist developing countries in responding to loss and damage. Governments also agreed to establish a ‘transitional committee’ to make recommendations on how to operationalize both the new funding arrangements and the fund at COP28 next year. The first meeting of the transitional committee is expected to take place before the end of March 2023. Parties also agreed on the institutional arrangements to operationalize the Santiago Network for Loss and Damage, to catalyze technical assistance to developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to ...

Authors • Mark Maslin Professor of Earth System Science, UCL • Priti Parikh Professor of Infrastructure Engineering and International Development, UCL • Richard Taylor Professor of Hydrogeology, UCL • Simon Chin-Yee Lecturer in International Development, UCL Disclosure statement Mark Maslin is the UNFCCC designated point of contact for UCL. He is a founding director of Rezatec Ltd, co-director of the London NERC Doctoral Training Partnership, a member of Cheltenham Science Festival advisory committee and a member of the Climate Crisis Advisory Group. He is an unpaid member of the Sopra-Steria CSR Board, Sheep Included Ltd and NetZeroNow advisory boards. He has received grant funding from the NERC, EPSRC, ESRC, DFG, Royal Society, DIFD, BEIS, DECC, FCO, Innovate UK, Carbon Trust, UK Space Agency, European Space Agency, Research England, Wellcome Trust, Leverhulme Trust, The Children's Investment Fund Foundation, Sprint2020, and British Council. He has received research funding from the Lancet, Laithwaites, Seventh Generation, Channel 4, JLT Re, WWF, Hermes, CAFOD, HP and Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. Professor Priti Parikh is a fellow and council member for Institution of Civil Engineers. She is a trustee for Happold Foundation, Sanitation and Human Rights in India and Engineers Against Poverty. Research funding sources include UKRI, Royal Academy of Engineering, Water Aid, British Academy, Bboxx Ltd, UCL, Royal Society and British Council. She is currently part f...

Click to enlarge In Nigeria, the rainy season was especially harsh in 2022. Towards the top of the image, floodwater had inundated numerous communities along the banks of the Benue and Niger rivers. Near their confluence, floodwater inundated Lokoja, the capital city of the state of Kogi. Flooding continued to the south, including a noticeably widespread area spanning southern Kogi and the northern part of Anambra state. Image: NASA Earth Observatory (OLI-2) on Landsat 9, June 12 and October 2, 2022 License and Republishing World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use. The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.