Summary of COP27

COP27, which commenced on the 6^th of November, included 11 thematic days: Finance day, Science day, Youth and future generation day, Decarbonization day, Adaptation and agriculture day, Gender day, Water day, Ace and civil society day, Energy day, Biodiversity day and Solutions day. The main events and outcomes are summarised below.

What happened at COP27

Nov 06^th

• Young Change-Makers from more than 140 countries participated in the 17th Climate Change Conference of Youth (COY17). Read more about the role of youth in COP27 here, Archived  
• Egypt Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry elected as COP27 President COP27 places loss and damage funding on its agenda

Nov 07^th

• World Leaders Gather for Implementation at COP27

There were three roundtable sessions with world leaders to discuss a range of persistent climate change issues, including Just Transition, Food Security and Innovative Finance for Climate and Development.

Nov 08^th

• First Ever Children and Youth Pavilion Opens at COP27
• COP27 Presidency launches Sharm El-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda

Adaptation outcome targets were set globally to be achieved in 2030 for food security and agriculture systems, water and nature systems, human settlements systems, ocean and coastal systems, Infrastructure systems, crosscutting-planning and crosscutting-finance. Read what the set targets are here

• Egypt and Norway to Establish 100MW Green Hydrogen Plant on the Red Sea as Part of Agreements in COP27

Nov 9^th

•  COP27 President Urges Youth to Push Government to take Action

Speaking at the Children & Youth Pavilion COP27, President H.E. Sameh Shoukry urged the youth to speak out, “I depend on your voices.  It is your future that we are supposed to be here to guarantee. And it is only through your voices, your advocacy and your inspiration to enjoy your right to take full advantage of the earth, the forests and the air and live a long and prosperous future on our beautiful planet once governments undertake their responsibilities.  You are the future, and your voice that will help deliver it.” Following his address, the COP27 President received a petition from young people campaigning for loss and damage funding following negotiations at the outset of the COP.

• COP27 launches initiatives to allow African countries to invest in building climate resilience.
• Climate Finance Kicks off Thematic Days Agenda at COP27

During the panel discussion, Climate Finance in a Poly-crisis Era, key themes, including innovative finance, financing just transition, sovereign debt for sustainability and climate change, and the role of the private sector in mobilizing resources, were addressed. Private finance was highlighted as essential to deliver trillions of dollars needed to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, and ambition, action and accountability were identified as critical to unlocking finance.

• Climate Implementation Summit Declaration COP27 Presidency Summary outcomes.

On the 8^th and 9^th of November, 112 leaders gathered under the title “together for implementation” and captured the necessary messages under each roundtable session. Just transition, Innovative finance, Green hydrogen, Food security, Water security, Climate change and the sustainability of vulnerable communities. Read what the messages were here

Nov 10^th

• COP27 Youth and Future Generation Day Ensures Younger Voices Have Seat at the Table
• COP27 Science Day Reiterates Importance of Data and Evidence for Delivering Implementation

During the day, several panels organized by the Egypt COP27 Presidency panels took place, including Uniting Global Scientific Research Efforts to Tackle Climate Change, Global and Regional Environmental Conventions, Assessments and Outlooks: Harmonizing Efforts, Africa’s Changing Environment: Improve Africa’s Resilience to Climate Change, which called for African countries to develop systematic approaches to data, Redirect: The role of research, development and innovation in addressing climate change and COP27 Global Stock-take Climate Datathon discussed the role of data in the Global Stock-take, to achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

Nov 11^th

• Decarbonization Day Prioritizes Hard-to-Abate Sectors at COP27

“The climate crisis is existential, overriding and ever-present, and we need to look at every piece of the puzzle, including the decarbonization of the industrial sectors that underpin the global economy,” said COP 27 President H.E. Sameh Shoukry.

• Decarbonization Day at COP27 Calls for Urgent Action to Reduce Emissions
• Egypt and US Announce over $150 Million to Aid Africa’s Adaptation to Climate Change

Nov 12^th

• COP27 Egypt Presidency and FAO Launch FAST Initiative to Transform Agrifood Systems and Improve Food Security

Food and Agriculture for Sustainable Transformation, or FAST, at COP27 today. The new initiative was said to increase climate finance contributions for agriculture and food systems to support the most vulnerable communities. FAST will focus on three priority areas Access to finance, Knowledge and capacity, Policy support and dialogue.

• Adaptation and Agriculture Thematic Day at COP27 Focuses on How the World Will Feed 8 Billion

Over the course of the day, several sessions and new initiatives highlighted the way forward on adaptation and climate-resilient agriculture. These included:

Food Security and Climate Change, How to avert, minimise, and address Loss and Damage to infrastructure, Shaping The Way Forward for an Adaptation Innovations and Technologies.

• COP27 Presidency Launches Initiative to Mobilize Climate Responses for Sustaining Peace

Nov 13^th

• Rest day.

Nov 14^th

• “We Must Now Shift Gears” COP27 President Sets Out Work Ahead For Implementation

Following consultation with the Parties and Groups involved in negotiations, the COP President set out a work program to deliver an agreement in the COP27 negotiations. This covered:

She continued technical negotiations across crucial issues under the governing bodies.

She continued Presidency consultations across all the issues under discussion.

Ministerial consultations focused on the key political issues requiring resolutions.

• COP27 Presidency Launches AWARe Initiative to Address Water Security as Part of Climate Change Adaptation

Action on Water Adaptation or Resilience (AWARe) is an initiative that will champion inclusive cooperation to address water-related challenges and solutions across climate change adaptation.

AWARe will focus on three priorities for action:

Decrease water losses worldwide and improve water supply.

Propose and support implementing mutually agreed policies and methods for cooperative water-related adaptation action and its co-benefits.

Promote cooperation and interlinkages between water and climate action to achieve Agenda 2030, particularly SDG 6.

• COP27 Thematic Gender Day urges Institutions And Individuals To Act For Implementation

President of the National Council for Women in Egypt, Dr Maya Morsi, emphasised “Women are not just victims of climate change, they are powerful agents of change, and their leadership is critical. A bottom-up approach is significant to understand women in communities, their environmental concerns, realities and experiences.” Read more here

• COP27 Presidency Launches Initiative to Support Women as Equal Players in Climate
• COP27 Puts Focus on the half of the world population that will live under water stress by 2025; the outputs can be found here

Nov 15^th

• Empowerment of Civil Society Tops COP27 Agenda

COP27 President H.E. Sameh Shoukry said: “The role of Civil Society and NGOs in the climate action process is absolutely crucial. Effective climate action requires a whole of the societal approach. All of us need to be involved and engaged, from institutions to individuals, in both acting and persuading others of the need to act. This day truly embodies the spirit of coming together for implementation.”

• COP27 Energy Day Focuses on Balancing Energy Trilemma

Commenting on Energy Day, COP27 President H.E. Shoukry said: “Energy is one of the most carbon-intensive sectors in any given economy, making it one of the most important areas to effect meaningful mitigation measures that contribute to addressing climate change and transitioning to a green economy for the future. Science is clear: global emissions must be reduced by half by 2030, reaching net zero by 2050. To achieve this, we need to invest in new sources of energy that are clean, affordable, accessible, sustainable, and reliable.”

Nov 16^th

• COP27 Presidency Connects Climate and Biodiversity

The ENACT initiative was launched with Germany and IUCN to enhance nature-based solutions. They set 8 areas of focus with this initiative.

• Biodiversity Day: Advance and institutionalise action towards valuing and conserving biodiversity while responding to the adverse impacts of Climate Change.

Nov 17^th

• Solution Day at COP27

Possible solutions for the broad array of climate change challenges range from holistic, cross-cutting solutions such as the greening of the national budgets, sustainable cities, multilevel action and sustainable transport, to sectoral solutions like waste management and alternatives to plastic and green building. More specific solutions emanated from the private sector and start-ups bring creativity and innovation to the effort to deal with climate change.

Will we achieve the targets on time?

COP27 took place in Egypt, marking 30 years since the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted and 07 years since the Paris Agreement was agreed upon at COP21.

Read the milestones achieved by the COP meetings till COP25 here

Here are a few statements made by global dignitaries and activists regarding COP27,

“Our shared planet is changing for the worse, and we can only address that together through this international system.” – Alok Sharma, President, COP26

“The Central Banks of the wealthiest countries engaged in $25 trillion of quantitative easing in 13 years. Had we used this to purchase bonds that financed the energy transition, we would be keeping within 1.5°C.” – Mia Amor Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados, COP26 World Leaders’ Summit

“Science is crystal clear, unless we boost our current level of climate action, globally and collectively, to deliver on our commitments, enhance our NDCs and raise adaptive our adaptive capacities to the impacts of climate change, the 1.5 degrees goal of the Paris Agreement might very well elude us”- COP27 President H.E. Sameh Shoukry.

In contrast, this is what the global climate activists had to say regarding COP27,

“The Cops are mainly used as an opportunity for leaders and people in power to get attention, using many different kinds of greenwashing,” – Greta Thunberg, Swedish climate activist.

At COP27, Namugerwa gave an address where she said the world “must face some real truths” to achieve good results. “Africa contributes less than 4% of carbon emissions, but we suffer the most,” she said at the start of the summit. “The future is at stake, mostly (for) young children. We’re not sure whether we’re heard when we speak or if we’re just ignored.”

Anya, an African researcher, said, “it’s not enough for us to have a meeting on climate change once every year; it’s something we should take seriously all year,”

When considering both perspectives, it is clear we need immediate action and those responsible need to take necessary steps to ensure that humans themselves suppress human-induced climate change.