COP27: The good, the bad and the ugly View Online [[link removed]]Powered byKnow better. Do better.Climate. Change.News from the ground, in a warming world

By Megan Rowling | Just Transition Editor

It was always going to be hard landing an ambitious outcome from COP27, hosted by gas-rich Egypt against a backdrop of international political tensions and an energy price crisis driven by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

On Saturday morning, the day after the U.N. climate summit was due to finish, the mood was sombre, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry had COVID and there was no food or water at the conference venue. There were fears the whole thing might collapse.

But given the severity of the climate-change impacts hitting poor communities around the world - from floods in Pakistan and Nigeria to a drought-driven hunger crisis in the Horn of Africa - it was also a now-or-never moment for global solidarity.

The good news? As 134 developing nations stayed united in their demand for a new fund to deal with growing "loss and damage" from climate change, long-time opponents including the EU and the United States finally caved in - with the caveat that the money will come from a variety of sources, from development banks to innovative taxes on things like fossil fuels and airlines.

Tough conversations about whether big-emitting emerging economies such as China should also pitch in with cash [[link removed]], as well as details of how the fund might operate, have been punted to next year.

Yet - as loss and damage champion Yeb Saño of the Philippines said - the decision at COP27 to create the fund marks " a new dawn for climate justice [[link removed]]". Now countries must ensure it sees the light of day and delivers the finance so sorely needed by communities already struggling with extreme weather and rising seas.

Activists protest at the Sharm El-Sheikh International Convention Centre, during the COP27 climate summit, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, November 11, 2022. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

Emergency room

The bad news from the gaudy desert resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh was that little was achieved in terms of slashing climate-changing emissions faster, and getting the world on track to meet the Paris Agreement warming limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Efforts by about 80 countries to include a phase-down of all fossil fuels [[link removed]], rather than just coal as agreed at COP26, in the final decision failed. Neither could governments agree to ensure global emissions reach a peak - and then start to head downward - by 2025. A call was repeated for countries to boost the ambition of their climate action plans, which last year resulted in only 30 or so updates.

U.N. chief Antonio Guterres closed COP27 with a stark judgement: "Let's be clear. Our planet is still in the emergency room. We need to drastically reduce emissions now – and this is an issue this COP did not address."

Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres speaks as he attends the COP27 climate summit at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, November 9, 2022. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

Big brother

And so to the ugly. The atmosphere in which the talks unfolded in Egypt was uncomfortable, both due to surveillance by authorities - with activists worried about who was watching their tightly controlled protests - and the large numbers of fossil-fuel industry players in the halls [[link removed]], with more than 630 lobbyists present.

Tech experts and rights groups said Egypt's mobile app for COP27 had a sinister side, as it could spy on delegates and track their talk, texts and emails [[link removed]] (I didn't download it), while getting a COVID test on-site also required handing over your passport.

With widespread criticism of the ham-fisted way Cairo's diplomats handled the negotiations, many COP-watchers also expressed doubts over holding the summit in another oil and gas-producing nation next year - the United Arab Emirates - arguing that this risks blunting appetite for swift and ambitious action to curb fossil fuels in a critical decade.

Yet there are beacons of hope on the ground – in Kenya, for example, where entrepreneurs are using solar power in marginalised places like remote refugee camps to boost people's access to clean energy and the internet [[link removed]], lighting the way to a better future for themselves and others.

Small is beautiful (and often more sustainable...)!

Megan

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