COP 27 - RMF Comment

07 November 2022

With COP27 kicking off in Sharm – El – Sheik, Egypt this week we are now looking ahead at what we can expect to be the key themes of the latest UN Climate Summit.

Firstly after much back and forth our new PM Rishi Sunak will be in attendance to represent the UK at the conference. The conference runs from 6^th November to 18^th November with attendance expected from world leaders and ministers who all form part of the 198 nations who signed up to the Earth Summit back in 1992.

We believe the key themes will be as follows;

Finance

It has been highlighted by the UN and various independent environmental research and campaign groups that developing countries are disproportionately effected by the impacts of Climate change. Given that the wealthier nations and their output contributes considerably towards global warming a compensatory ‘loss and damage’ fund of over $100 million will no doubt remain under discussion.

1.5 Degree target

All nations have signed a legally binding agreement known widely at the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to below arming below 2°C (3.6°F) above pre-industrial levels, and preferably limit warming to 1.5 °C (2.7°F). This is the target that scientists agree will reduce the impact of climate change.

At present they are not on track to hit this goal, even if all countries succeed in reducing their national emissions at the levels they have pledged. While countries are not due to share updated targets this year, it is possible we’ll see some more ambitious commitments given that we are nearer to a warming of 2.5°C based on UN modelling.

Adaptation

We have all been witness to some of the most extreme natural disasters occurring in recent years from Wildfires to extreme heat and as these events become our ‘new normal’ there is likely to be various discussions on how we adapt to these.

Given that progress since COP26 in Glasgow has been slower than anticipated we hope that COP27 brings us more tangible targets and commitments. Stay tuned for more updates on the latest from COP27 and RMF’s comment.

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