The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) entered into force in 1994. It has a near-universal membership of 192 countries that have ratified the Convention and which collectively are called the Parties to the Convention. Since then, the annual climate conference of parties (COP) is held under the UNFCCC. The ultimate aim of the UNFCCC is to stabilise greenhouse gas emissions by preventing dangerous human interference with the climate system to protect the planet.

On 11 December 1997, the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement linked to the UNFCCC was adopted in Kyoto, Japan and entered into force on 16 February 2005. It commits its Parties to internationally binding emission reduction targets for greenhouse gases (GHGs). Recognizing that developed countries are principally responsible for the current high levels of GHG emissions in the atmosphere as a result of more than 150 years of industrial activity, the Protocol places a heavier burden on developed nations under the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities”. Under the Convention and the Protocol, rich countries have an obligation to extend finance and technology to developing countries to enable them to address the impacts of climate change.

The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change adopted by 196 Parties at COP21 in Paris, on 12 December 2015. Its central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Article 9 of the Paris Agreement stipulates that developed country Parties shall provide financial resources to assist developing country Parties with respect to both mitigation and adaptation in continuation of their existing obligations under the Convention.

The annual negotiations under the UNFCCC (now on its 27^th meeting hence COP27), the Kyoto Protocol (CMP) and the Paris Agreement (CMA) is now under way in the Egyptian coastal resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh.

 The political machinery of global climate governance

These mega-meetings serve as the political machinery of global climate governance. After almost three decades of battling climate change denialism funded by transnational corporate money, many now see climate change as the biggest challenge of our time and are demanding governments address the climate emergency. Leaving fossil fuels in the ground and stopping their exploration, development and extraction increasingly gain legitimacy as the most viable responses to climate change. There is also a political consensus among activists, movements, scientists, and progressive policy makers that a Just Transition to renewable energy is a key part of the solution.

It is already well-known that despite their very little contributions to climate change, developing countries have been suffering disproportionately from its impacts not just on lives and livelihoods lost when climate-related catastrophes happen and long-term damage to their ecosystems and territories. Their future development is also affected as they now allot an increasing amount of budget to address the effects of climate change and incur increasing debts from international financial institutions to address those impacts.

Yet, the results of COP26 failed their demands for reparations-based climate finance and did not tackle Loss and Damage. The term Loss and Damage is used within the UNFCCC process to refer to the harms caused by anthropogenic or human-generated climate change. Establishing liability and compensation for loss and damage has been a long-standing goal for vulnerable and developing countries.

For many years now, the bloc of advanced economies in the negotiation have shifted the discussions away from their historic responsibility and climate debt to the global south. Their pledges for reducing their emissions and financial contributions to help developing countries deal with climate change is still grossly insufficient and was criticised as inadequate to meet the already weak Paris Agreement targets. The results of COP26 shows that the machinery is in bad need of reform.

 The key fights in COP27: climate adaptation and Loss and Damage

At COP27, the key fights will be climate adaptation and Loss and Damage. At the very least, the much-delayed $100 billion per year by 2020 climate finance pledge at COP15 held in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2009 must be met. At COP26 in Glasgow last year, the UK promised to double up new and additional adaptation finance and pledged £260 million in climate finance payments. That promise was not met. In the High-Level Session of world leaders at COP27 last Monday, Rishi Sunak simply restated the UK’s existing pledges of £11.6 billion of climate finance. While he announced a tripling of the UK’s funding for adaptation to £1.5 billion by 2025, no new money was allocated, meaning there will have to be cuts elsewhere. In addition, the total amount falls short of the UK’s fair share of climate finance.

The developing countries’ demand for the establishment of a stand-alone Loss and Damage Facility, which is a third pillar in the negotiation, needs to be agreed on at COP27. Discussions on loss and damage have been particularly contentious with developing countries pushing for a facility for loss and damage finance, while developed countries, especially the United States, were firmly opposed to this. The compromise in Glasgow last year was just to have a general dialogue instead of discussing a loss and damage finance facility. The G77 strongly proposed to discuss funding arrangements for addressing loss and damage in Sharm El-Sheikh.

These are but bare minimums that COP27 should deliver to restore trust in multilateral climate diplomacy. Unfulfilled commitments on financing climate action should no longer be seen as acceptable.

The Arab region is abuzz with climate-focused activities to respond to the limits of what is brandished as an African COP. Feminist organisations from 15 Arab countries discussed for two days in Jordan from 12-13 September. For many of them, they see the climate crisis as a crisis very much linked with the problems they face on food and rising prices of commodities. A youth climate conference in Tunisia in the end of September received more than 3,000 applications to attend the more than 100 workshops organised by various groups. Organisers only prepared for an event for 300 participants.

Humanity is facing a tremendous challenge, but opportunities to organise and come up with collective responses are also arising.

Dorothy Grace Guerrero