November 2022
When COP27 officially kicks off in Sharm El Sheikh on Sunday, the UK will hand over its presidency to Egypt to lead the talks.
Although it doesn’t seem like much time has passed since COP26 Glasgow last November, events of the past year have made it clear that the climate and nature crisis isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. Floods have devastated vast areas of Pakistan and millions of people in East Africa face starvation following years of below-average rainfall. We rely on healthy ecosystems for our livelihoods, yet just a few weeks ago, a report published by WWF and ZSL showed that wildlife populations across the world have declined by 69% on average since 1970.
In the UK, temperatures exceeded 40C for the first time and a state of drought was declared in many areas. Yet as temperatures rise and wildlife populations plummet, the UK Government’s actions threaten to make things even worse. The Retained EU Law Bill, which had its second reading in the House of Commons last week, puts hundreds of laws that protect our nature and wildlife on the line. At the same time, the UK Government is still deciding whether or not to go ahead with a new coal mine in Cumbria and has announced new fracking and North Sea oil and gas licences.
The Egyptian COP27 Presidency has suggested that this year’s COP will be all about ‘implementation’. If we are to seriously meet 1.5C by 2050 and bend the curve of biodiversity loss by 2030, we’ll need to see this implementation as soon as possible, and as outgoing presidents, the UK Government will be expected to be front and centre of this action. Going into the talks without a credible track record at home will undermine any commitments the UK makes at COP27 and make achieving global progress even harder.
What do we want to see from COP27?
- A strong link between COP27 and COP15
COPs taking place under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) like COP27 are often called the ‘climate COP’, whilst conferences taking place under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) are referred to as the ‘nature COP’. Although it’s useful to have multiple spaces to address these issues, these cannot be treated as separate problems. We won’t be able to tackle the climate crisis without restoring natural ecosystems, and we won’t be able to tackle the biodiversity crisis without a significant and rapid reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions.
The CBD COP15 will be taking place in Montreal in December after a delay of nearly three years. The talks will decide the new post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, which will guide global efforts on nature up to 2030. Up to now negotiations have achieved little progress and the talks haven’t received the same high-level attention as the climate conferences.
COP27 will be a crucial opportunity for global leaders to call for an ambitious outcome for nature at COP15, including alignment between the Global Biodiversity Framework and the Paris Agreement.
- Ramping up action to meet 1.5C
COP26 in Glasgow managed to ‘keep 1.5C alive’, supporting the Paris Agreement aim to limit global warming to 1.5C before the end of the century. But there’s been little demonstration of action to actually achieve this in the 12 months since, with the UN reporting last week that there is currently ‘no credible pathway to 1.5C in place’.
If we are to meet this target, parties will need to step up a gear to reduce global emissions. At COP26, it was agreed that all countries would revisit their emissions-cutting pledges, or Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), with the aim of closing the gap to 1.5C. The UK’s updated NDC, submitted in September, failed to do this. This not only threatens to undermine the UK’s so-called ‘world-leading’ action on the environment, but also goes against what the public have said they want to see from the Government on climate: recent polling shows that half think the UK net zero target should be brought forward, and 8 out of 10 UK citizens are worried about climate change. They have reason to be; based on current policies we could be on track for 2.7C of warming, with catastrophic consequences.
- Recognising the link between climate and nature
Even if not much has happened since, one good thing that came out of Glasgow was the momentum that was generated for integrated action on climate and nature, with Parties recognising the “interlinked global crises of climate change and biodiversity loss”.
In addition to properly funding and implementing the land use and deforestation commitments
made at COP26, more is needed. It has been estimated that natural ecosystems could contribute around 30% of the global mitigation effort required to meet 1.5C. Alongside a rapid phasing out of fossil fuels, any COP27 outcome must recognise the importance of protecting and restoring ecosystems both on land and at sea for both climate mitigation and adaptation. This means aligning NDCs with National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs), which Parties to the CBD will be expected to draw up after COP15.
In the UK, we could make a good start on using our land to support progress on both climate and nature targets by protecting and effectively managing 30% of our lands and seas for nature.
Critically, the protection of our planet’s species and habitats also needs to happen through a rights-based approach, recognising and strengthening the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities and guaranteeing their participation in developing and implementing natural climate and nature policies.
- Deliver spending to meet commitments
Alongside reducing emissions to limit global temperature rise, we need to double down on climate adaptation efforts to ensure that communities are more resilient to extreme weather events caused by the climate crisis. At COP26, an agreement was made to double adaptation finance by 2025, but recent updates reports have shown little progress on this target since last year. COP27 must agree a robust delivery plan to meet this pledge.
Glasgow also saw parties admit to missing the pledge to provide $100bn a year in climate finance. COP27 will need to produce a more concrete plan to meet this goal to ensure the trust of all Parties in the COP process, and the UK should demonstrate its commitment to climate finance by paying its own outstanding contributions.
Finally, and crucially, the success of this COP will depend on arrangements made to support loss and damage costs for communities who have already suffered on the front line of climate change, with little contribution to its cause.
It’s good news that Rishi Sunak will now be attending the talks. Perhaps better late than never, but it exactly doesn’t signal a real commitment to tackling the climate and nature crisis. After indicating that he had ‘pressing domestic issues’ to deal with, hopefully he’s now realised that we can’t have a functioning society without a functioning climate and healthy ecosystems. If he is serious about taking action on the environment, we’ll be looking for the UK to play an ambitious role at COP27 over the next few weeks, matched by delivery at home. We’ll also be expecting him to go along to COP15 later in the year.
