- For the first time, countries agreed to add loss and damage funding to the official agenda. (Negotiations)
- The United States helped launch the Forest and Climate Leaders’ Partnership and the Green Shipping Challenge. (U.S. Updates)
- U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres launched the Early Warnings for All Action Plan. (Around the World)
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UNFCCC Executive Secretary Mr. Simon Stiell of Grenada speaks during the COP27 opening plenary on Sunday. Credit: UNFCCC
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- Opening plenaries: COP27 kicked off on Sunday with the opening plenaries where countries adopted the agenda for the next two weeks. There is an agenda for each of the sessions happening in Sharm El-Sheikh: the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP27), the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP17), and the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA4).
- Loss and damage: One of the main questions going into COP27 was if there would be debate about a loss and damage agenda item related to finance. This agenda item did get included on the CMA4 agenda as item 8(f): “Matters relating to funding arrangements responding to loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change, including a focus on addressing loss and damage.”
- Negotiations: The first week of COP is focused on technical negotiations, while the second week consists of primarily political negotiations. While some negotiating sessions started today, they will pick up speed as the week goes on. To keep up with the negotiations, refer to the Earth Negotiations Bulletin.
- Climate Implementation Summit: As part of the World Leaders Summit, also referred to as the Climate Implementation Summit, high-level roundtable sessions were held on food security, just transitions, and innovative finance for climate and development. An additional three sessions are on the schedule for tomorrow on investing in the future of energy, water security, and climate change and the sustainability of vulnerable communities.
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Left to right: BCSE Executive Director Lisa Jacobson, CarbonQuest Vice President for Strategy and Market Development Anna Pavlova, Johnson Controls Vice President for Corporate Sustainability and Regulatory Affairs Renae Kexar, and Daniel Bresette at BCSE's press conference. Credit: BCSE
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- Congress and COP: EESI Executive Director Daniel Bresette laid out some priorities for tracking U.S. engagement at COP27 during a press conference organized by BCSE. “It remains critical for Congress to continue to provide the investments and policies needed for the U.S. to meet our Paris Agreement goals,” Bresette said in his opening remarks. “This remains true even in the wake of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act.”
- U.S. climate leadership: 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. President Biden will be at COP27 on November 11.
- Climate finance: An analysis released by Carbon Brief today 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.
- Forests: The Forest and Climate Leaders’ Partnership (FCLP) was launched to accelerate implementation of a COP26 pledge between 140 countries to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030. A U.N. report released today found that for this goal to remain within reach, a one-gigaton milestone of emissions reductions from forests must be achieved by 2025. The first meeting of the FCLP took place today at COP27 and was chaired by Ghana and the United States, with 26 countries and the European Union included in the partnership. The U.K. committed £90 million (about $103.8 million) for conservation in the Congo Basin as part of FCLP, in addition to £65 million (about $74.8 million) for supporting Indigenous and local forest communities.
- Green Shipping Challenge: The United States and Norway announced the launch of a Green Shipping Challenge. According to a press release from the White House, “this initiative encourages governments, ports, maritime carriers, cargo owners, and others in the shipping value chain to come forward with concrete steps that will help put the international shipping sector on a credible pathway this decade toward full decarbonization no later than 2050.” See the full list of announcements around green shipping here.
- U.S. green shipping announcements: As part of the Green Shipping Challenge, the U.S. also announced several new green shipping initiatives, including a study to explore the creation of a green shipping corridor between the Republic of Korea and the United States, a U.S.-U.K. green shipping corridor task force, the launch of the Green Shipping Corridors Initiation Project, and the creation of a U.S. action plan for maritime decarbonization in 2023.
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Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan speaks at the World Leaders Summit. Credit: UNFCCC
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- National Statements: Leaders from more than 100 countries will speak today and tomorrow at the World Leaders Summit. Some country commitments from today’s speeches are highlighted below. But some heads of state from major emitting countries are expected to be absent from the entire conference, including President Xi Jinping of China, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan, and President Vladimir Putin of Russia. Both U.S. President Joe Biden and President-elect Luis Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil will be speaking later on in the conference. Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore kicked off the summit: “We continue to use the thin blue shell of atmosphere surrounding our planet as an open sewer.”
- Italy | Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has pledged to triple its financial commitment to $1.4 billion over the next five years, including €840 million (about $842.7 million) through the new Italian Climate Fund, which will deploy clean technologies and adaptation strategies in developing countries.
- Netherlands | Prime Minister Mark Rutte pledged to increase its annual contribution to the $100 billion climate finance goal to €1.8 billion (about $1.8 billion) by 2025. The country will also double its public finance for climate adaptation, including €100 million (about $100.3 million) for the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program.
- Slovakia | President Zuzana Caputova pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions 55% by 2030 compared to 2005 levels. The country is also joining the Global Methane Pledge and starting widespread decarbonization of their economy, which will reduce industry carbon dioxide emissions by 40% by 2030.
- Tanzania | President Samia Suluhu Hassan pledged to increase renewable energy use from 60% in 2015 to 80% in 2025. The country also plans to preserve 48 million hectares of forest, which is 55% of Tanzania’s total land area.
- United Kingdom | Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged that the U.K. will triple funding for adaptation programs to £1.5 billion (about $1.7 billion) in 2025, part of a package of international climate finance pledges.
- Early warnings: U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres launched the Early Warnings for All Action 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.
- Drought: The International Drought Resilience Alliance was officially launched today by Spain and Senegal to “shift drought management from emergency response to resilience against climate change impacts.” Spain is committing €5 million (about $5 million) for this to become operational.
- Science in decision-making: Country representatives gathered to review the synthesis report and key findings of the second structured expert dialogue(SED2). SED2 reviews how science, including the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report, is integrated into the decision-making processes under the UNFCCC. The SED2 serves multiple purposes. It will inform the first global stocktake that is currently underway, which is a process to assess progress towards the goals set under the Paris Agreement. The fact that it is written in plain language also makes it accessible to the general public. A key message from the report summary is: “it is still possible to achieve the long-term global goal [of well below two degrees Celsius] with immediate and sustained emission reductions.”
- Middle East Green Initiative: The second meeting of the Middle East Green Initiative (MGI) Summit took place today at COP27 with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman pledging $2.5 billion to support the Initiative. At the first MGI Summit meeting in 2021, 28 countries agreed to work together to combat climate change. The crown prince also said Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund would aim for net-zero emissions by 2050.
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EESI resources
Tracking the negotiations
- CarbonBrief: Reporting and analysis on the U.N. Climate Talks, with in-depth tracking of country positions in the negotiations.
- COP27 Resource Hub: World Resources Institute's extensive set of resources on the climate negotiations.
- Earth Negotiation Bulletin: A play-by-play of the negotiations plus expert analysis from the International Institute for Sustainable Development | @IISD_ENB
- ECO Newsletter: The climate advocate’s perspective from Climate Action Network International | @CANIntl
Background and logistics
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Questions about COP27?
Reach out to EESI Policy Manager Anna McGinn with your question and we will get back to you or include the information in an upcoming newsletter. |
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Thanks for reading!
This newsletter covering COP27 will be running from November 7 to November 21.
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Thank you to EESI staff for their contributions: Anna McGinn, Savannah Bertrand, Emma Johnson, and Amaury Laporte
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Environmental and Energy Study Institute
Daniel Bresette, Executive Director
EESI is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization established in 1984 by a bipartisan Congressional caucus to provide timely information and develop innovative policy solutions that set us on a cleaner, more secure and sustainable energy path. |
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