The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, more commonly referred to as COP27, was the 27th United Nations Climate Change conference, held from 6 November until 20 November 2022 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. It took place under the presidency of Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry, with more than 92 heads of state and an estimated 35,000 representatives, or delegates, of 190 countries attending. It was the fifth climate summit held in Africa, and the first since 2016.
The conference has been held annually (except 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic) since the first UN climate agreement in 1992. It is used by governments to agree on policies to limit global temperature rises and adapt to impacts associated with climate change. The conference led to the first loss-and-damage fund being created.
Background
Egypt was announced as the host of the conference following a successful bid launched in 2021. On 8 January 2022, the Minister of Environment of Egypt, Yasmine Fouad, met with COP26 President Alok Sharma to discuss preparations for the conference. The Egyptian organizers advised countries to set aside tensions over the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine to ensure negotiations are successful.
Possible climate change measures were discussed at the 2022 United Nations General Assembly, including the governments of several island nations launching the Rising Nations initiative, and Denmark and Scotland announcing climate finance measures for developing countries. On 14 October 2022, the Scottish government called for climate reparations at COP27, as a "moral responsibility". At a pre-COP meeting in October 2022, UN Secretary-General António Guterres emphasized the importance of the conference given the impacts of climate change observed in 2022, such as floods in Pakistan, heatwaves in Europe and Hurricane Ian that impacted countries in South, Central and North America.
The conference was the first COP to take place in Africa since 2016, when COP22 was held in Marrakesh. Egypt's Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry took over the presidency from Sharma at the start of the conference. The United States decided to support climate talks at COP27, and pledged to try to assist countries that are most affected by climate change.
One week ahead of the summit, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), released a report outlining how there was "no credible pathway" to limiting global temperature increase to 1.5 °C and that mitigation efforts since COP26 had been "woefully inadequate". But countries can curb time spent in a warmer world by adopting more ambitious climate pledges and decarbonizing faster, according to a new research published in the academic journal Nature Climate Change during the COP27.
Several days before the opening of the summit a report was published, sponsored by some of the biggest agricultural companies. The report was produced by Sustainable Markets Initiative, an organization of companies trying to become climate friendly, established by King Charles III. According to the report, regenerative agriculture is already implemented on 15% of all cropland. The rate of transition is nevertheless "far too slow" and must be tripled by the year 2030 for preventing the global temperature to pass the threshold of 1.5 °C above pre-industrial level. Agricultural practices must immediately change so as not to "destroy[...] the planet". One of the authors emphasized that "[t]he interconnection between human health and planetary health is more evident than ever before". The authors proposed a set of measures for accelerating the transition, like creating metrics for measuring how much the farming is sustainable and pay the farmers who will change their farming mode to more sustainable. They wanted to present their propositions in the summit.
Two days before the start of the talks, a compromise was reached, "that discussion would focus on 'cooperation and facilitation' not 'liability or compensation'". The ultimate goal of the 2022 COP27 was in dispute. Wealthy countries were expected to focus on ways to help developing nations phase out fossil fuels and transition to renewable energy. However, there are tensions between richer, developed countries and poorer nations, over who should pay the costs of global warming. This is because developed countries bear the brunt of climate impacts as they contribute higher carbon emissions and environmental pollution. These discrepancies were expected to be defined and decided in the conference.
The conference was sponsored by Coca-Cola. Several environmental campaigners suggested this was greenwashing, given the company's contribution to plastic pollution. Coca-Cola is the largest plastic polluter in the world with 1.9 billion consumptions of Coca-Cola products per day around the world. This has led to three million tons of plastic packaging used by the Coca-Cola Company in one year. These plastic bottles are not biodegradable and are fabricated from toxic chemical compounds. For example, plastic Coca-Cola bottles demonstrated high levels of phthalate ester leaching. It is recommended to avoid drinking from plastic bottles that leach these chronic and highly toxic chemicals. Lack of proper disposal causes these bottles to be released into the environment. This has harmful consequences to animals if they ingest plastics and in environments such as degradation into microplastics. Coca-Cola is a multinational litter brand meaning its single-use plastic packaging has various consequences dependent on regional and national plastic regulations and/or laws. The company also has very high water usage despite its water neutrality pledge.
Challenges for the African continent
In a report published in October 2021, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) considered Africa to be the most vulnerable continent to the effects of climate change. More than 100 million Africans will in fact be threatened by global warming between now and 2030. Thus many states, NGOs and African commentators hoped that the holding of this summit in an African country would improve the visibility of the priority demands of civil society and African States, in particular the compensation of developing countries for the consequences of global warming. There will be an increase in many threats such as droughts, rain season timing changes, temperatures and precipitation. This will not only have consequences on people but also on agriculture. These changes will affect crop production as it is dependent on temperature, humidity, and precipitation. Lack of produce will have negative consequences on many countries in Africa by struggling to support and feed the population.
Participation
As a COVID-19 recovery strategy, the Egyptian government increased hotel prices in Sharm El Sheikh, leading to concerns over the affordability and inclusivity of the conference. Egypt's foreign, environment and social solidarity ministries privately selected and screened local NGOs that would be permitted to apply for one-time registration for the climate summit. The application process and the selection criteria were not made public.
Around 90 heads of state and representatives from more than 190 countries were expected to attend, including United States president Joe Biden and climate envoy John Kerry, French president Emmanuel Macron, German chancellor Olaf Scholz, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, Kenyan president William Ruto and Sri Lankan president Ranil Wickremesinghe.
By the number of attendees the COP is the second largest after COP26 in Glasgow, at 33,449 participants. This is the first COP without observer states as all participating countries, including Vatican City, have ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Of the 11,711 participants, 1,751 were from non-governmental organizations. The United Arab Emirates led the largest delegation with 1,073 participants, followed by Brazil (573) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (459). Many of the ten largest delegations came from African countries.
UK prime minister Rishi Sunak initially said that he would not attend COP27. However, on 2 November, Sunak backtracked and announced he would attend. Former prime minister Boris Johnson and Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon also attended the conference. Right after winning the 2022 general election, president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil confirmed he would attend the summit.
Non-attendees
Among the heads of state and government not attending were Chinese leader Xi Jinping and his premier Li Keqiang, as well as Russia's Vladimir Putin and his prime minister Mikhail Mishustin.
In September 2022, Egypt warned the UK not to backtrack on its climate targets, in light of a change to the new government of prime minister Liz Truss, and the announcement that new monarch Charles III would not attend the conference on Truss's advice. Following Truss's resignation, the request that Charles III not attend remained in place. Instead, he hosted a reception to discuss climate change at Buckingham Palace two days prior to COP27.
Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese, outgoing Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, and Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg did not attend COP27.
During the summit
Itinerary and events
On 7 and 8 November, the conference began with a World Leaders' Summit, followed by discussions on topics such as climate finance, decarbonization, climate change adaptation and agriculture during the first week. The second week is expected to cover gender, water and biodiversity. French president Emmanuel Macron, Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte and Senegalese president Macky Sall will host an event on accelerating climate change adaptation in Africa. India has sought clarity and definition on climate finance besides motivating other countries to provide technology to combat climate and disasters.
Event spaces on the opening day of the conference were told they may need to be cancelled, unless they involve visiting heads of state, following tightening of security. These restrictions will not apply to the following day of the conference. Some NGOs criticized the move. Media access to the pavilions is also expected to have heavy restrictions.
On 8 November, the High-Level Expert Group on the Net Zero Emissions Commitments of Non-State Entities of the United Nations formed the previous March by UN Secretary-General António Guterres and chaired by former Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna released a report that stated that the carbon neutrality pledges of many corporations, local governments, regional governments, and financial institutions around the world often amount to nothing more than greenwashing and provided 10 recommendations to ensure greater credibility and accountability for carbon neutrality pledges such as requiring non-state actors to publicly disclose and report verifiable information (e.g. greenhouse gas inventories and carbon footprint accounting in prospectus for financial securities) that substantiates compliance with such pledges. After the release of the report, a research consortium called the Net Zero Tracker that includes the NewClimate Institute, the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, the Data-Driven EnviroLab of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the Net Zero Initiative at the University of Oxford issued a report evaluating the climate neutrality pledges of 116 of 713 regional governments, of 241 of 1,177 cities with populations greater than 500,000, and of 1,156 of 2,000 publicly listed companies in the 25 countries with the greatest emissions (whose pledges cover more than 90% of the gross world product) by the recommendations of the UN report and found that many these pledges were largely unsubstantiated and more than half of cities have no plan for tracking and reporting compliance with pledges.
Opening days
In his opening remarks, Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi called for countries to act on climate change, drawing attention to the impact of extreme weather events in recent years. Barbados premier Mia Mottley called for grant-based rather than loan-based approach to climate finance. She requested that world leaders implement natural disaster clauses to developing countries' debt. She claimed that development banks, the institutions that provide developing countries with loans for infrastructure development, were outdated. In her speech, she praised Denmark as the first country to propose a fund that directly helps countries who face the most severe consequences from climate change.