The burning topic of COP27 - Climate Finance

Have you researched the title, “Why climate finance is a political hot potato” on Google search results yet? If not, you will be amazed by how many times this heading has been used for articles and is a burning topic during and after the COP27 event was held in Egypt. 

Our current climate situation

Climate change is happening right at our footsteps and has become a burning topic in COP27. More specifically, the topic that sits next to climate change is climate finance, which speaks to loss and damage. Humans are taking over nature through urban expansion, genetically modifying a seed, deforestation and over-fishing, just to list a few of our human-induced actions. The act of taking over nature has led to climate finance, as our environment is now in turmoil and has to be fixed in the form of paying a price. Yes, humans are paying the price of their own actions and the youth are the ones that are putting their foot down in conferences such as COP27 to support climate finance.

COP27 is a climate summit held by the United Nations (UN) every year for governments and other stakeholders to address and take action on the global rising temperatures. This year, COP27 was held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt on the 20th of November 2022. These stakeholders are known as COPS, which are “Conference of the Parties” and are formed by those who signed the UN Agreement related to climate in 1992. On 27th of November 2022, BBC News stated that COP27 is important as it addresses three main issues, which include: 1) helping countries prepare for climate change, 2) securing funding and technical support for developing countries and 3) to reduce emissions. This year specifically climate finance has been the burning topic.

The highlights on climate finance by Nature

According to Nature on the 22nd of November 2022, during COP27 the commitment of the delegates have been reaffirmed to their goal from 2015 in the Paris climate agreement stated, ‘to limit global warming to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial temperatures — while making no further commitments to phase out fossil fuels.” In order to achieve this goal, “emissions need to fall by 45% from 2010 levels by 2030.” The latest UNFCCC report states that emissions are bound to increase over the 10% benchmark and there is no set plan on the way forward to turn these figures around. In 2022’s COP27, 45,000 people were registered to attend the event in Egypt but believed that having a planetary emergency to tackle emissions is something to question in such a short space of time.

In the COP27 discussions, however, a planetary emergency formed through a “loss and damage” fund. This fund has been planned to aid countries that are being severely affected by climate change. This includes businesses destroyed by the floods and the rebuilding of homes. This type of fund is needed in order to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change. Further, there is a barrier on who can support this fund between the rich and the poor countries, as the rich countries will eventually have to partner with the poor countries to support them during their climate crisis. This topic is however to be continued in COP28 which will be held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

The entrance of “loss and damage”

Since loss and damage is a new topic attached to climate change, a group of climate vulnerable countries will be asking the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to come to a conclusion to define the term in an individual country specific context. A synthesis on climate finance should be drafted out as evidence and support to loss and damage funds. The more research that is done around the topic will help to make more clearer decisions and will answer any remaining questions. These questions are mostly political and need to be answered in COP by government negotiators. Further, if researchers can give two sides of the page, by having agreements and disagreements around climate finance through research, this will help the government negotiators come to a conclusion much faster. For instance, the IPCC has given solid research in 1995, 1996 and 1998 proving that greenhouse-gases and humans are contributing to climate change. Further, a binding agreement by scientists and the governments have led to the Kyoto Protocol, which is aimed to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Moreover, an article by Researchgate mentions that there needs to be more climate interpreters who can integrate the divide between field application and science in order to understand the implications to make more precise decisions when planning.

A personal viewpoint on climate finance and “loss and damage”

Personally, I do believe that climate change is here to stay and it is caused by human-induced actions on the environment. Hence, we need to pay up on what we have harmed and destroyed in nature through the “loss and damage” fund. This can be seen as our only escape route to assist affected businesses and the rebuilding of homes that have been destroyed by floods. Since the world is transitioning to the western culture, I feel that traditional and indigenous knowledge is being lost and this knowledge can actually help combat climate change naturally.

The question still remains - are we going to wait for COP28 to move forward with climate finance or can we not take action now to help communities and each other on a local scale to combat climate change? It is now or never, let us do our bit to reduce the effects of climate change today!