At COP 27, money and promises will be on the agenda

Many issues will be under discussion when the United Nations climate conference begins next week, but two at the top of the list will be money and promises: the willingness of developed nations to offer financial support for developing nations, and the status of national pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The European Union last week signaled its willingness to support a discussion of compensation when the 27th Conference of the Parties — COP 27 — opens Nov. 6 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Similarly, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry last week told reporters, “We believe we have to step up, and we have a responsibility. We accept that.”

Meanwhile, researchers at the Stockholm Environment Institute released a report saying that existing funding mechanisms would not suffice.

The status of nations’ pledges on cuts in greenhouse gas emissions are not holding up well to date.

According to Reuters: “Nearly 200 countries agreed at last year’s COP26 summit to improve their emissions-cutting pledges, called Nationally Determined Contributions or NDCs, in time for COP27, but only two dozen countries have so far done so. The world remains on a path to overshoot 2 degrees of warming beyond the pre-industrial average.”

Supporters of climate action enter the conference buoyed by recent encouraging political news: Brazil’s presidential election, European investment in renewable energy and enactment in the U.S. of climate legislation backed by President Biden.

Reuters: EU to back climate compensation talks at U.N. summit - document

Reuters: Ahead of COP27, researchers call for climate compensation fund

Reuters: Factbox: COP26 a year later: Where do last year’s climate pledges stand?

The Washington Post: Three major developments in 2022 may shift the world’s climate trajectory