Disagreement at COP 27

This past week the United Nations Climate Change Conference known as COP 27 has been taking place. This year's climate summit is taking place in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. The summit entails a group of negotiators representing over 200 nations discussing actions that need to be taken on a global scale to combat climate change. Last years COP 26 took place in Glasgow, Scotland. The result from that conference was fairly positive. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has done research which came to the conclusion that emissions must fall by about 45% by the end of the decade in order to meet the 1.5 degree warming target, which was first brought up at the 2015 Paris Climate agreement. At the Glasgow conference nations agreed to limit their emissions by about half by the end of the decade in order to meet this goal. The conference this year so far has been difficult in terms of coming to compromises on goals.

There is increasing tension between developing nations and developed nations as the topic of compensation gets discussed and some nations playing major roles still are hesitant to commit to limiting their emissions to meet the 1.5 degree target. An article covering COP 27 by the New York Times quotes the former president of Ireland who stated, “When I arrived here, I got a really strong sense of backsliding”. A few major emitters including China have been hesitant to agree to the 1.5 degree goal. Other nations including many developing countries argue that this goal is critical to saving lifes. Island nations are at the brink of being destroying due to increasing sea levels, coastal cities are facing destruction due to the increased frequency of extreme weather events, and droughts and floods across the world threaten lives, all attributing to the increasingly desperate need for agreement. 

Another major point of conflict at the COP 27 is the topic of compensation. A draft of the agreement released on Thursday showed a deepening divide between some wealthier and poorer nations in regards to compensation. At the convention this year a group of 77 developing nations demand the creation of a fund before next year. The European Union Has proposed a plan to create a fund to aid poorer developing nations that face the impacts of climate change, but the United States and China are currently major obstacles in creating agreements with the potential to produce adequate change. Last Year both the US and China made major announcements in regards to their plans but have kept silent so far this year. On Thursday an official representing China stated that it was “not the time” to rewrite the 1992 climate agreement.

The increased tension and disagreement at the COP 27 is a major problem for addressing climate change. Climate change is a global problem with effects impacting the whole world, and therefore global agreements and legislation are crucial to solving the problem. This also has negative implications for human rights for the future as more people and countries will continue to feel the effects and therefore have their human rights taken away. Ideally large emitters of greenhouse gasses would agree to continue to reduce emissions and agree to contribute to a fund for compensation of developing nations but it is unclear at this point if that is a realistic goal. 

Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/16/climate/cop27-global-warming-1-5-celsius.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=styln-cop27&variant=show&region=MAIN_CONTENT_1&block=storyline_top_links_recirc

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/18/climate/un-climate-talks-cop27.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/11/17/climate-change-cop27-egypt/