The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) kicked off on Sunday in Egypt, featuring a formal opening plenary of the conference, followed by a two-day Climate Implementation Summit, which was held between Monday and Tuesday.
After two days of roundtables and country statements, more than 100 heads of state raised their voice by pledging commitments to support the world’s vulnerable communities. A series of six roundtables was convened to address the most pertinent climate challenges, including food, water, and energy security, as well as innovative finance mechanisms for climate and development.
At the inauguration, Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Secretary General of the UN Antonio Guterres welcomed world leaders.
In his speech, Antonio Guterres said the world is on a pathway to climate hell, and the best way to deal with it is aggressive climate action.
Here is a summary of the six major talking points at the roundtable of the climate implementation summit.
Over $7 billion pledge for food security
At the COP27 event in Egypt, there was a roundtable on “Food security” which was co-chaired by William Ruto, President of Kenya, and Ulf Kristersson, Prime Minister of Sweden.
At the roundtable, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pledged to invest $1.4 billion over four years to support smallholder farmers, particularly women, with innovative digital technologies.
Another $6 billion global food security platform ($3B IFC, $2B from private investors, $1B as blended finance) was launched by the IFC.
A number of key players from the private sector also made net zero pledges during the high-level segment, including JBL – the largest meat processing company in the world – and UPL – a key player in the agrochemicals industry to achieve carbon neutrality.
The summit also had several international organisations acknowledge the role of COP27 Food and Agriculture for Sustainable Transformation “FAST” global flagship initiative in responding to the urgency of implementation.
It reinforced a leadership imperative and commitments by many countries to do more and increase adaptation in agriculture action and support, particularly in Africa.
Innovative Finance
There was also another round table discussion on ‘innovative finance’ which was co-chaired by Emmanuel Macron, President of France, and Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados. The event had discussions on the role of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), with joint calls to increase allocations from 20 percent to 30 percent .
There was a joint call for concessional finance to be based on a climate vulnerability basis rather than an income capacity basis, with representatives of developing countries highlighting that access to finance remains an obstacle to many, especially towards efforts to implement their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
Participants also reiterated the need for debt restructuring and liquidity access, especially in the developing and least developed countries in light of the current food and energy crisis.
WEF expressed its interest in launching a coalition of companies willing to commit to investing in renewable energy in emerging and developing countries.
Just Transition
With the massive scale of challenges surrounding ‘just transition’, Charles Michel, President of the European Council and Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa co-chair this roundtable while emphasising the need for strategies, policies, mobilization of appropriate finance, technology, capacity building and investment to ensure a just transition for affected communities in developing countries.
The roundtable agreed that this requires major efforts not just by governments and the energy sector but also from international financial institutions and donors, as well as multilateral development banks and other non-state actors.
Participants underscored that transition must be just and inclusive, leaving no one behind.
Job creation arising from new economic activities that require establishing mechanisms that would allow for forms of training, capacity building, forms of reallocations of resources, including creating social protection systems that support transition was also discussed.
During the discussion, participants discussed the role of digital transformation in the transition towards a low-carbon economy and the need to take that into account while designing climate and social policies in support of the transition.
Investing in the Future of Energy: Green Hydrogen
At the “Investing in the Future of Energy: Green Hydrogen” roundtable co-chaired by Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, President of Arab Republic of Egypt and Olaf Scholz, Chancellor of Germany, major announcements were made in respect of green hydrogen.
Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and the Prime Minister of Belgium, Alexander De Croo, announced the launch of the “Global Renewable Hydrogen Forum” – a multi-stakeholder public-private platform designed to facilitate large-scale deployment of renewable hydrogen to foster decarbonization of local industries, accelerate just transition and unlock the environmental and socio-economic benefits of the global hydrogen economy.
At the roundtable, President Sisi announced the Egyptian-Norwegian green hydrogen project, which provides a practical model of investment partnership that stimulates sustainable economic development with a focus on the role of the national and foreign private sectors besides the government’s role, working side by side in the sector.
Sustainability of Vulnerable Communities
The roundtable on “Climate Change and the Sustainability of Vulnerable Communities” was co-chaired by Jonas Gahr Støre, Prime Minister of Norway and Shehbaz Sharif, Prime Minister of Pakistan.
The forum reiterated how evidence has shown that investing in adaptation has proven profitable.
It was agreed that from a strictly financial perspective, relief, rescue, rehabilitation, and reconstruction due to climate-induced floods have proved costly and avoidable.
With the recent floods in Pakistan and other climate-induced devastations in the Horn of Africa and the Sahel region, there is the urgent need to build resilience and advance adaptation to climate change and capitalize funds in a way that is equitable took center stage.
A call from the private sector asked for governments to provide guarantees as an enabler to adaptation efforts. Accessibility to finance for small businesses was also raised as a contributor to incentivizing decarbonization.
The need to enable more projects to be bankable so that investment in adaptation can be made to protect the most vulnerable in developing countries was also raised.
Water Security
The roundtable on water security was co-chaired by Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Prime Minister of Greece, and Macky Sall, President of Senegal. It featured discussions on the basic human need for sustainable access to adequate quantities of and acceptable quality water for sustaining livelihoods as well as for ensuring protection against water-borne pollution and water-related disasters and for preserving ecosystems in a climate of peace and political stability.
The roundtable showcased success stories on water management, while UN organizations representatives reflected on ways to scale these techniques to other water-stressed countries and identify tangible actions to accelerate the implementation of key water security projects worldwide.
As other activities at COP continue, a lot of focus will be on the African agenda as conversations centred around climate and loss and damage take centre stage. Nigeria’s president had called for international support for African countries to deal with the devastating impact of climate change. In his speech, urged world leaders to stop the blame game and avoid delays in implementing efforts to tackle climate change.
Please note: ALL IMAGES ARE COPYRIGHT OF COP27 PRESIDENCY