I'm a 15 year old Nature Enthusiast and it's been more than a year since I have been working to bring positive changes in the field of environment which has led me to work with organisations like Ourswapna,Global Movement of Fridays For Future,Co-founder at Healthy Naari and a Young Campaigner at Save the Children!
- Point Of View: COP 27 - November 16, 2022
What is COP 27?
COP27 takes place in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt and marks 30 years since the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted and seven years since the Paris Agreement was agreed at COP21.
An annual event, the ‘Conference of the Parties’ or ‘COP’ brings together the governments which have signed the UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol or the Paris Agreement.
World leaders, ministers, and negotiators come together to agree how to jointly address climate change and its impacts. Civil society, businesses, international organizations, and the media ‘observe’ proceedings to bring transparency, as well as broader perspectives, to the process.
With the strapline, ‘Together for implementation,’ COP27 will be an African COP, and the first of two COPS in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. COP26 in 2021 was jointly hosted in Glasgow, Scotland by the UK and Italy, who continue to hold the COP presidency until COP27 begins. COP28 will be held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2023.
What are the Goals of COP 27 ?
Egyptian COP27 Presidency has defined the summit’s four key goals as:
• Mitigation: All parties, especially those in a position to “lead by example”, are urged to take “bold and immediate actions” and to reduce emissions to limit global warming well below 2°C.
• Adaptation: Ensure that COP27 makes the “crucially needed progress” towards enhancing climate change resilience and assisting the world’s most vulnerable communities.
• Finance: Make significant progress on climate finance, including the delivery of the promised $100 billion per year to assist developing countries.
• Collaboration: As the UN negotiations are consensus-based, reaching agreement will require “inclusive and active participation from all stakeholders”.
Why is COP 27 important?
The conference is an important platform for nations to discuss and reach a consensus on how to protect the world. The overarching aim of these conferences is to compel world leaders to take actionable measures to prevent the global rise of temperatures above 1.5ºC.
With the world already on track to be 3.3 to 5.7ºC hotter by 2100 if no intervention is made, the consequences of global warming and inaction are already being felt with the increasing number of natural disasters.
Based on the COP 27 summit, here’s what our Climate Activist Dinesh and Ritambra has to say about it:
In the run up to COP27 where leaders, activists, and people all around the world gather to make bold commitments, would you care to through some light on how far India and other countries have come on the commitments made in COP26?
There have been steps made in either way. On one end, we have seen renewable energy growing in India. On the other, you’ll notice it’s a conglomerate making the biggest strides in this sector, with its roots from coal mining in a way that I believe stifles competition and smaller companies from investing in the sector. India’s promise to introduce 50% of power supply from renewables wasn’t an aggressive target to begin with-given how solar and wind energy can meet this target by 2030 (without hydropower’s contribution) – is counteracted by its growing coal production.
And despite all the talk about environmental consciousness, India’s repeated dilution of key environmental policies and clearances for destructive projects, such as the Nicobar Project- which involves cutting of 8.5 lakh trees-are still rampant are reasons for me to believe that India’s leadership is irresponsible about climate crisis, and needs to prioritize the environment over profits for long-term economic resilience. (Dinesh – FFF India)
We are still far away from the idea of commitments made in COP26. We need to understand to switch to all zero emission will not be the only solution and it is very different to achieve it in country like India because green alternatives are not Pocket friendly along with that we face a major crisis of waste management and water treatment.Achieving such goals will be of no use if we are unable to provide basic living standards. (Ritambra – Climate Front India).
With the Russia Ukraine war weakening economies and countries still recovering from the COVID 19 and pandemic and seeing inflation, do you think leaders around the world are seriously taking climate action or they’re just pretending to act?
To be fair, Russia’s war against Ukraine and the post-pandemic era are both harsh scenarios for leaders to operate in. That said, leaders never really bothered about climate change to begin with (beyond speeches and promises), so the economic conditions can’t be accepted as reasons for leaders to compromise on their climate action commitments.
Furthermore, compromising on climate action to help the economy recover and grow is short-termed thinking and a flawed argument. For example, India’s losing $159 Billion to heat stress; a scenario that will worsen with inaction. Climate action is any responsible country’s effort to protect/grow its economy too. (Dinesh – FFF India )
Even if all the current pledges are implemented, the world is still headed to a 2.4-2.6-Degree Celsius average global temperature rise. PM Narendra Modi stressed on the importance of individual action and lifestyle changes. As a climate activist and volunteer what do you think is the real situation on the ground, are people really willing to shift to a sustainable lifestyle?
Our PM’s LIFE movement is well-intended, but unless we have his leadership caring about climate action (which it doesn’t), it is insensitive to ask individuals to do so.
Especially when India has one of the lowest per-capita emissions in the world. That, and the fact that India’s richest 20% (at 1.32 ton per capital emit seven times more than low-expenditure households at 0.19 ton per capital). India’s people are not the cause for India’s emissions to begin with. And green premium is very much real, and India’s majority needs a bigger incentive to switch to sustainable options. It’s less about willingness and more of the ability to lead a sustainable lifestyle; no citizen pollutes on purpose if given a fair choice.
And how much of a sustainable lifestyle can we lead if coal companies continue to cause pollution and environmental harm?
I personally see it as a tactic to divert attention away from systemic failures to take climate action, towards the people who are least responsible for causing climate crisis.
(Dinesh – FFF India)
Isn’t it ironic that the biggest plastic polluter globally Coca-Cola is sponsoring COP27? What would you like to comment on this step taken by Coca Cola, is it a strategy to greenwash the populations at large or they seriously want to bring a change?
It indeed is ironic. Coca-Cola’s as a sponsor for COP27 reduces the legitimacy of the conference. That said, this isn’t the first time I have seen Coca-Cola try to uplift its reputation, having seen ads that don’t mean anything about sustainability on popular newspapers.
Coca-Cola has actively engaged in greenwashing for a long time, and its COP27 sponsorship is another such example without meaningful action to back it up. (Dinesh – FFF India)
If companies like Coco cola really want to bring change they need to show it in reality with there action sponsoring such events is complete greenwashing. (Ritambra – Climate Front India).
What does COP 27 aims to achieve?
The Sharm El-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda outlines 30 outcomes which can be adopted at a local level to respond to local climate contexts. These outcomes span five impact systems: food and agriculture, water and nature, coastal and oceans, human settlements, and infrastructure, and solutions for planning and finance.
Some of these targets include:
• Increasing battery storage capacity and extending transmission and distribution networks to enable decentralized generation and consumption.
• Giving 2.2 billion people access low-cost, clean vehicles and mobility solutions through the expansion of affordable public and private transport services.
• Expanding transport infrastructure to ensure it is resilient to climate hazards through adoption of new technology, design and materials.
Overall, we should not only be limited to these conferences, rather we should take individual actions like planting saplings, Cleanups and much more to fight back climate change because,
If not us then, who ?
If not now then, when ?
Also read :
12 ways to live a sustainable lifestyle.
Delivering For People:
Venkatesh 
Archana Patel 
Thanks for finally writing about