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November 8, 2022
The annual U.N. climate negotiations offer a significant platform for organizations to release new climate reports. These reports cover both adaptation and mitigation and propose climate solutions from multiple perspectives.
Additionally, the U.S. federal government will release a number of plans to reduce emissions and increase climate resilience during COP27. These include steps the United States plans to take domestically and internationally.
EESI tracks the daily happenings at COP27 through our newsletter, COP27 Dispatch: What Congress Needs to Know from Sharm El-Sheikh. Much of the content of this article is drawn directly from COP27 coverage in the newsletter. You can view all issues of COP27 Dispatch here. For a breakdown of key announcements from COP27, check out our COP27 Announcement Tracker.
Carbon Brief Analysis: An analysis by Carbon Brief based on 2020 climate finance data found that the U.S. is more than $32 billion short on contributing to the $100 billion per year climate finance goal that developed countries agreed a decade ago. The group estimates that in 2020 the United States should have contributed about $40 billion towards the goal based on factors such as historical share of greenhouse gas emissions, yet the U.S. only contributed $7.6 billion. Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom are also lagging behind.
Making Good on the Glasgow Climate Pact: This U.N. report found that in order for the COP26 pledge to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030 to remain within reach, a one-gigaton milestone of emissions reductions from forests must be achieved by 2025.
Early Warnings for All Action Plan: U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres launched a plan calling for targeted investments of $3.1 billion over the next five years to improve disaster risk knowledge, observations and forecasting, preparedness and response, and communication of early warnings.
An All in Pathway to 2030: America Is All In released a report showing that action from states, cities, and businesses, combined with federal leadership, can enable the U.S. to reach its goal of reducing emissions by 50-52% by 2030.
Renewable Energy Targets in 2022: The International Renewable Energy Agency released the guide to design, detailing that national renewable energy targets are currently not ambitious enough to achieve Paris Agreement climate targets. The report finds that by 2030, the level of ambition for renewable energy targets must double.
Yearbook of Global Climate Action 2022: This UNFCCC annual report found that the world is not on track to keep global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Net Zero Pledge Report: U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres and other leaders, including the COP27 High-Level Champion Mahmoud Mohieldin, launched a report that lays out steps to ensure net-zero pledges are credible and rigorous. It specifically calls out activities that should prohibit a company, investor, or sub-national government from claiming that they have a net-zero commitment. The report is part of the High-Level Expert Group on the Net-Zero Emissions Commitments of Non-State Entities’s effort to “develop stronger and clearer standards for net-zero emissions pledges by non-State entities, including businesses, investors, cities and regions.”
Finance for Climate Action: The Independent High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance, formed by the COP26 and COP27 Presidencies together with the UNFCCC High-Level Champions, released a report on scaling up investment for climate and development. The report intends to provide a framework for climate finance based on the goals of the Paris Agreement and the Glasgow Pact. A key message of the report is that the world needs a roadmap to mobilize $1 trillion per year in finance by 2030 to support emerging markets and developing countries.
Mobilizing Solar Investments: The World Resources Institute, International Solar Alliance, and Bloomberg Philanthropies launched a report outlining recommendations for mobilizing $1 trillion of investments in solar energy by 2030, including that “governments can take action immediately, in partnership with commercial banks and development finance institutions, to address these barriers and to replicate and scale effective solutions.”
Guidebook for Just Financing: Egypt’s Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al Mashat presented a new framework called the Sharm El-Sheikh Guidebook for Just Financing, which sets an actionable agenda on just climate finance for stakeholders at all levels. The Guidebook defines just financing as “financing that accounts for historical responsibility for climate change while ensuring equitable access to quality and quantity climate financing that supports resilient development pathways leaving no one behind.”
Critical Business Actions for Climate Change Adaptation: The World Economic Forum published a report laying out a framework for business action on climate change adaptation.
Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction: The U.N.’s 2022 report found that the buildings and construction sectors accounted for over 34% of global energy demand and 37% of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in 2021. The sectors’ carbon dioxide emissions grew 5% from 2020 levels, despite investments in efficiency. The report recommends mandatory energy efficiency building codes, government investments in energy efficiency, and increased use of circular building materials.
Climate Vulnerability Monitor: The Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) and V20 Countries (a group of countries with a shared vulnerability to climate change) released the third edition of the Climate Vulnerability Monitor report. The press release states that the report “presents a unique global assessment of the climate change loss and damage entirely updated for consistency with the IPCC’s AR6 [Sixth Assessment Report], with estimated, climate-attributable data for the world presented across three distinct bodies of work (biophysical, health, and economic).”
Traffic Light Assessment: The Climate Vulnerable Forum released a report called the Traffic Light Assessment, which examines how current NDCs align with the Paris Agreement goals. This report is framed around the fact that countries have differing contributions and capacities to adapt to the climate crisis, and takes this into account by calculating country-specific emission allocations that consider GDP and ranking on the Human Development Index. A main conclusion is that the G7 countries, seven of the world’s advanced economies (including the U.S.), would have to cut emissions by 91% below their NDC targets to meet the 1.5°C goal on a fair shares basis.
Ten New Insights in Climate Science: Future Earth, The Earth League, and the World Climate Research Programme have released their latest annual report called 10 New Insights In Climate Science in 2022. UNFCCC Executive Secretary Simon Stiell highlighted one finding of the report: “Adaptation actions are still crucial … but as the report says, the potential to adapt to climate change is not limitless and will not prevent all losses and damages … I therefore applaud parties for getting loss and damage on the agenda here at COP27.” Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research Johan Rockström added that “1.6 billion people already today live in vulnerability hotspots, a number that will double in 2050 if we continue burning fossil fuels … that is one-third of the world’s population living in regions that are approaching limitations to adaptation.”
Access to Nature: The Hispanic Access Foundation released the report 10 Ways Access to Nature Can Bolster Biodiversity, Communities and Climate, highlighting how making nature more accessible can result in a multitude of benefits, including climate change mitigation.
U.S. COP27 Fact Sheet: To go along with President Biden’s address, the White House published a fact sheet highlighting new U.S. climate initiatives launched at COP27. Notably, the U.S. is updating its U.S. Methane Emissions Reduction Action Plan to focus on delivering on its goal of reducing methane emissions 30% by 2030.
2022 Global Carbon Budget: The Global Carbon Project launched the annual report, finding that global carbon dioxide emissions increased by 0.8% in 2022, largely driven by emissions from oil and land-use change. If emissions remain at current levels, the report found that it is likely that the window to keeping temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius will be gone in nine years. Check out this analysis by Carbon Brief.
Urban Climate Change Reports: IPCC authors launched three reports summarizing the key findings of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report for urban policymakers. The three reports focus on the science behind how climate change impacts cities and urban areas and opportunities for adaptation and mitigation. According to Aromar Revi, an IPCC coordinating lead author, “urban climate change mitigation has a huge role in determining the future of the global climate … cities and urban areas offer critical spaces to realize climate resilient development.”
U.N. Climate Finance Reports: The UNFCCC Standing Committee on Finance presented its latest reports examining the state of climate finance, including the current amount of climate finance and progress on the $100 billion per year goal. One takeaway is that $4.5 trillion in global energy investment is needed by 2050, but current climate finance levels are not on track to meet that mark. In addition, the $100 billion goal was not met in 2020. There is both a lack of clarity on how to measure contributions to this goal and a lack of data for tracking the flow of money.
Land Gap Report: The Land Gap report finds that almost 1.2 billion hectares—about the same area that is used to produce food globally—would need to be dedicated to carbon storage through land-based activities like tree planting to meet carbon removal targets in NDCs. If the carbon removal targets in NDCs are implemented as currently outlined, demand for land would outpace supply. The research suggests that “countries should seek to reduce their expected reliance on land-based carbon removal and must instead make much deeper cuts in emissions,” while also recognizing the value of protecting ecosystems and shifting to agroecology.
Asset to Flows Report: The UNFCCC High-Level Climate Champions’ report “summarizes the work and key insights on what it will take to convert financial assets into flows” to fund climate action. The report is based on a series of workshops hosted by the COP27 Presidency, the High-Level Climate Champions, and the U.N. Regional Commissions. During these workshops, over 100 projects were presented requiring financing of approximately $120 billion.
Emissions Gap Report: The 13th U.N. Environment Programme Emissions Gap Report finds that since COP26, “there has been very limited progress in reducing the immense emissions gap for 2030.” The report states that business-as-usual policies will lead to global warming of 2.8°C (5°F), and implementation of current NDCs would slightly reduce that to between 2.4 and 2.6°C (4.3–4.7°F). According to the report, “to get on track for limiting global warming to 1.5°C, global annual GHG emissions must be reduced by 45% compared with emissions projections under policies currently in place in just eight years, and they must continue to decline rapidly after 2030, to avoid exhausting the limited remaining atmospheric carbon budget.”
World Energy Transitions Outlook: Francesco La Camera, director-general of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), highlighted IRENA’s report, which found that “global investment needs [are] up to $5.7 trillion per year until 2030.” The outlook, which looks at renewable deployment across the world, also highlighted that “out of almost three trillion [dollars] of investments in renewables over the past two decades, only 60 billion was realized in Africa.”
How to Unlock Public Transport for Climate and Sustainable Development: Sustainable Mobility for All, a coalition of transportation- and mobility-focused organizations, launched a new report outlining six areas of action, including embracing public transportation as a solution for climate and sustainable development and ramping up finance for public transportation. The report finds that shifting to sustainable urban mobility systems worldwide could save $5.2 trillion per year.
Forest Tenure Pledge Report: At COP26, funders pledged to mobilize $1.7 billion by 2025 “to support the advancement of Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities’ forest tenure rights and greater recognition and rewards for their role as guardians of forests and nature.” Since COP26, the Forest Tenure Funders Group (FTFG) has raised nearly one-fifth of this amount, according to an annual progress report that was discussed at a U.S. Center panel. USAID is collaborating with FTFG to implement projects using this funding.
Methane Emissions Report: A new report presented at a meeting of leaders from 40 countries that support the Climate and Clean Air Coalition shows that methane emissions are rising at record rates and that urgent action is needed to reduce emissions. One mechanism for doing so is the Global Methane Pledge, which has a goal of reducing methane emissions 30% by 2030. According to the report, reaching this goal would prevent 5.6 million deaths, avoid the loss of 580 million tons of food, and save $520 billion in health, forestry, and agriculture costs—all by 2050.
Global Peatlands Assessment: A new report launched by the U.N. Environment Programme and the Global Peatlands Initiative catalogs the current location and condition of peatland ecosystems. As described in the summary of the report, “Peatlands are unique and rare ecosystems that, despite only covering around 3-4% of the planet’s land surface, they contain up to one-third of the world’s soil carbon, which is twice the amount of carbon as found in the world’s forests. Keeping this carbon locked away is absolutely critical to achieving global climate goals.” There are 158 million hectares of peatlands across Canada and the United States, with fewer than 20% of them in protected areas.
Updated Forest Conservation Plan: At COP26, the U.S. announced a decade-long plan to conserve global forests. By 2030, the U.S. expects to provide up to $9 billion in international climate funding to carry out the plan. A newly updated and more ambitious plan was released at COP27 with the goal of restoring at least 200 million additional hectares of forest by 2030. The State Department also outlined progress that has been made so far.
Climate Change Action Fact Sheet: The White House released a fact sheet laying out U.S. actions on tackling climate change domestically and abroad, including passage of the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and ratification of the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol.
Roadmap for Nature-Based Solutions: Monica Medina, the newly-named U.S. special envoy for biodiversity and water resources, and Brenda Mallory, chair of the Council on Environmental Quality, announced the White House’s new Roadmap for Nature-Based Solutions to Fight Climate Change, Strengthen Communities, and Support Local Economies. The roadmap is designed to help the U.S. government identify and address policy hurdles, coordinate funding across agencies, and build a workforce to support implementation of nature-based solutions.
Just Energy Transition Partnership Investment Plan: South Africa unveiled its new Investment Plan as part of the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), which was established at COP26 to decarbonize the country. The JETP Investment Plan will guide the $8.5 billion mobilized by the International Partners Group—which includes the United States—and identifies investments needed in the energy sector, electric vehicles, and green hydrogen. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa applauded the historic deal in a press conference but emphasized that more grants and concessional loans are needed to avoid further increasing the country’s debt.
Climate Prosperity Plans: The heads of state of Ghana, Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh presented their countries’ Climate Prosperity Plans, including Sri Lanka’s newly-launched plan. The plans are framed around climate solutions, with an eye towards also supporting growth, health, and development. The four countries are members of the V20, a group of vulnerable countries that work together to increase global climate ambition.
FAO Climate Strategy: The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) officially launched its 10-year climate strategy. The plan “aims to address a broad range of interlinked challenges, including the loss of biodiversity, desertification, land and environmental degradation, the need for accessible renewable energy, and food and water security.”
The CaRPE Tool: American Farmland Trust released an updated tool and a series of state-specific briefs “to help states estimate greenhouse gas emission reduction opportunities from the implementation of climate-smart cropland and grazing land management practices.” The state-specific briefs look at opportunities for climate-smart agriculture in Illinois, Michigan, New Hampshire, Oregon, and Virginia.
Climate TRACE: Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore launched this global non-profit coalition created to independently track greenhouse gas emissions using satellite imagery and AI technology. Users can freely download data and explore a world map of emitting facilities. This data can be used to verify pledges like the Global Methane Pledge. The Climate TRACE data suggests, for example, that actual methane emissions are triple what current reports estimate based on new data on flaring and methane leaks.
Climate Negotiations Database: The Boston University Global Development Policy Center published the Climate Negotiations Database. The database includes all items negotiated under the UNFCCC since 1995 and includes user-friendly, interactive graphics to explore the data. In an article about the database, authors say the bottom line is: “While the negotiations have broadened to include a wider range of issues, transparency and mitigation matters have dominated the agendas. Greater balance among issues is needed.”
IPCC Emissions Transparency Software: During the two weeks of COP27, the UNFCCC is elevating events related to transparency under the banner of #Together4Transparency. UNFCCC transparency mechanisms apply to countries’ reporting on climate finance and on their greenhouse gas emissions. As a part of this effort, the IPCC has launched its newest software for countries to calculate their emissions, which includes key updates that will lead to more granular and disaggregated outputs.
Global Renewables Watch: The Nature Conservancy, Microsoft, and the satellite data company Planet have joined forces to build a new tool to map wind and solar energy facilities over time. As of COP27, the team has mapped renewable energy installations in Brazil, Egypt, Germany, India, and Kenya and plans to map the entire world by 2023. The tool can provide insight into countries’ progress towards their NDCs; illuminate if land use decisions are impacting other conservation values; and help forecast ideal locations for future renewable energy development.
Sustainable Aviation Fuel Pocket Guide: The World Economic Forum’s Clean Skies for Tomorrow initiative and the Sustainable Markets Initiative published a guide to help businesses navigate the process of purchasing sustainable aviation fuel for corporate travel. The guide explains that SAF can reduce lifecycle emissions by 70% compared to jet fuel.
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