Tag: COP27 conference

COP27 closes with Loss & Damage Fund victory – and fossil fuel hypocrisy

The UN climate summit COP27 came to a close today (20/11/22), with a historic win on Loss and Damage but with staggering hypocrisy from the UK, EU and UK on fossil fuels, according to environmental campaigners.

On the Loss and Damage fund victory, Friends of the Earth Scotland head of campaigns Mary Church said: “Securing a Loss and Damage fund is a huge victory for global South countries who stood strong and united in the face of dirty tricks by the rich historical polluters who are resisting taking responsibility for the crisis they caused.

“Whether these global North countries will actually stump up the money needed to resource the fund is another question, given their abject failure to deliver on other longstanding finance commitments.

“Civil society played a vital role in their advocacy and solidarity with global South countries on this all important issue, leaving the US, EU and UK with no cover for their diversionary tactics. People power matters, we can and must keep fighting for the better world we know is possible, because world leaders aren’t going to make it without us.”

India initiated a call for language to be included on the ‘equitable phase down all fossil fuels’, not just coal, and the issue generated significant attention during the last days of the summit – but the Sharm El-Sheikh Implementation Plan simply repeats the text from last year’s Glasgow Climate Pact on the ‘phase down of unabated coal’, letting global North countries who tend to be less reliant on coal off the hook, and with the massive loophole that ‘unabated’ brings in allowing coal projects that are ‘carbon capture and storage ready’.

In their speeches to the closing plenary this morning, the UK, US and EU devoted substantial time to ‘calling out’ the lack of progress on fossil fuel phase out in the text, despite their own fossil fuel expansion plans.

Church continued: “The hypocrisy we witnessed at these climate talks from rich historical polluters on the issue of fossil fuel phase out is staggering. There is nothing to stop countries from phasing out fossil fuels, and yet the UK and the US in particular are doing the opposite with their vast expansion plans.

“Alok Sharma must take his table thumping on fossil fuel phase out back home and demand the UK Government overturn their climate trashing plans for North Sea oil and gas expansion and to reject the new coal mine planned in Cumbria.

“The Scottish Government too must turn its climate leadership on the international stage into concrete actions at home to get back on track to meeting its climate targets. It must clarify its position on oil and gas and set an end date for fossil fuels within this decade in order to have any chance of delivering on our fair share of climate action.”

As the climate summit closes, British prisoner of conscience Alaa Abd El-Fattah’s release has still not been secured and his situation remains extremely precarious.

Church continued: “There can be no climate justice without human rights, and we stand in solidarity with British citizen Alaa And-El Fattah and all prisoners of conscience.

“The UK Government has failed to use its abundant leverage with the Egyptian Government to secure Alaa’s release. The spotlight must not move on when COP27 is over. We will not forget you.”

Commenting on the conclusion of COP27 in Egypt, Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said:

“COP27 has finally seen an acknowledgement by developed countries that the people least responsible for global warming are the ones suffering its worst consequences and that we have an obligation to support those experiencing the impacts of the climate crisis in the here and now. 

“The agreement to establish a fund for loss and damage is truly groundbreaking and is a testament to 30 years of hard campaigning by the global south and civil society.  I am pleased that Scotland, in being the first developed country ever to make a financial contribution, has been able to play a small part in that journey working with others over the last twelve months to build the momentum that has led to today’s decision.

“There remains a lot of detail to be worked out over the next year ahead of COP28, but from the inclusion of loss and damage on the agenda, to the agreement to establish a fund, this COP has delivered a real breakthrough for vulnerable and developing countries.  

“It is deeply disappointing that the recognition of loss and damage has not been matched by greater action to prevent a worsening of the climate crisis.  Keeping 1.5 alive and delivering the fastest possible transition away from fossil fuels is key to preventing greater loss and damage in the future. 

“Alongside loss and damage we needed to see progress on adaptation and mitigation, on the submission of new national contributions, a pathway to 2030 and a strengthening of the language of the Glasgow Pact.

“It is simply not good enough that countries failed to make progress on that agenda, and that there has been such a strong push back on action we all know is needed if 1.5 is to remain truly within reach. It is vitally important that countries recommit themselves to doing everything they can to ensure we keep 1.5 alive and to building a coalition ahead of COP28 that protects and drives progress against any further push back.

“Despite that disappointment, and the challenges faced by civil society in having their voice heard in Egypt, the breakthrough on loss and damage is what I hope COP27 will be remembered for, and that is a vital step forward for the developing world.”

COP27: Rich countries cynically bargaining the future of the planet – Friends of the Earth

As the UN Climate Conference, COP27, draws to a close in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, many of the most continuous issues remain unresolved, or will be delayed to a future summit.

The negotiations, which were due to close yesterday, have now to run into overtime. 

Friends of the Earth Scotland head of campaigns Mary Church said: “As we race towards climate breakdown, once again we are seeing rich countries trying to evade their responsibility to step up and do their fair share of climate action.

“As extreme weather events wreak havoc around the world, the UK and US are parroting the mantra of keeping 1.5°C alive while doing exactly the opposite by continuing to expand damaging fossil fuel projects. They are failing to stump up the climate finance they owe and which Global South countries need to adapt to and recover from the impacts of global heating.

“Big polluters who brought the climate to the brink of breakdown are cynically bargaining away the future of people and planet in order to eek out a few extra years of profits from business-as-usual, by pushing dangerous fantasy techno-fixes and human rights trashing nature-fixes.

“Nothing short of a complete transformation of our economic system and phase out of fossil fuels is needed to avoid complete climate breakdown.

World leaders lack the political will to take the necessary action, but people everywhere are rising up and fighting dirty energy projects and putting in place the real, community based solutions which can deliver climate justice.

“There can be no climate justice without human rights, and we stand in solidarity with British citizen Alaa And-El Fattah and all prisoners of conscience. The UK Government has failed to use its abundant leverage with the Egyptian Government to secure Alaa’s release.

“The spotlight must not move on when COP27 is over. We will not forget you.”

Analysis of what has happened in the COP27 negotiations :

LOSS & DAMAGE

        • Global South countries have made finance for Loss and Damage, or the now unavoidable impacts of climate change, a top priority at COP27, as extreme weather events, exacerbated by global heating, wreak havoc around the world. 

        • Rich, historical polluters are pitting calls for urgently needed Loss and Damage finance against meeting the critical 1.5°C target, and attempting to strip the Paris Agreement goal of an equitable approach that would see Global North countries required to do their fair share of emissions cuts and finance. 

        • Global North countries are trying to split the G77 & China negotiating bloc, which has held strong on its demands for a Loss and Damage finance facility to be established at this COP.

Northern countries are pushing insurance schemes (the USA and Germany in particular) and a fund that would be open to fewer countries and rely on from a wider donor base than just Global North countries (Thursday evening’s proposal from the EU which is supported by many Global North countries). 

        • Announcements of Loss & Damage funding by Global North countries during COP27 have attracted attention and given the impression of movement on this intractable issue. However analysis shows that most of the pledges are simply repackaging of existing climate finance commitments and are directed towards early warning systems and the Global Shield insurance scheme championed by Germany, rather than badly needed public funding in response to both disasters and slow onset loss and damage, including those of a non-economic nature. This has led to accusations of ‘Loss and Damage washing’. 

CARBON MARKETS & CARBON REMOVALS

        • Meanwhile the question of whether dangerous emissions avoidance and removals schemes would be counted towards mitigation efforts under plans for carbon markets is likely to be delayed to future summits. The highly controversial issue of whether carbon markets would be allowed under the Paris Agreement was settled last year in Glasgow, however substantial issues remain unresolved.

Carbon markets allow polluters to continue emitting greenhouse gases, for a price, either through trading or offsetting (paying someone else to cut their emissions). With no top-down, science or justice based targets in the Paris Agreement carbon markets are simply unworkable and a major distraction from real solutions to cutting emissions.

FOSSIL FUEL PHASE OUT

        • Horse trading in the final hours may result in the phase down or out of all fossil fuels being cited in the President’s cover decision (the equivalent of the Glasgow Pact), which would be progress on last year’s decision to phase down coal only. However the likely caveat of ‘unabated’, which allows for fossil fuels to go ahead with only the promise that e.g. they will be ‘carbon capture and storage ready’ would seriously temper this win.

The US has the second biggest fossil fuel expansion plans in the world (after Saudi Arabia), while the UK is pushing a new licensing round that could see a hundred new licences for North Sea oil and gas extraction issued.

HUMAN RIGHTS

        • COP27 has been held against the backdrop of shrinking civil society space globally, and the Egyptian Government’s highly repressive regime which has arbitrarily detained and tortured thousands.

Climate justice groups have been vocal in their solidarity with Egyptian prisoners of conscience including high profile hunger striker, British citizen Alaa Abd El-Fattah. The UK Government has failed to prioritise securing Alaa’s release, and he remains in a highly precarious situation.