By Jacob Young
Photo courtesy of Unsplash
Beginning on the 6th of November for two weeks, the United Nations Conference of the Parties gathered in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt for the yearly climate change summit to discuss decisions for future climate action. The key discussions were the Paris climate agreement, the need for an increase in scientific research, the objectives for the Kyoto Protocol including equity, climate vulnerability, clean and renewable energy, water and food security for people around the world.
The largest development that happened at this summit was the financing granted to nations who have been impacted from climate disasters through loss and damages such as the flooding that happened in Iran, Bangladesh, Sudan and Pakistan (UNCC). Drought is causing mass famine across parts of Africa and affecting about 50 million people (Sarr). According to Diouf Sarr the world's richest 10% of people cause 50% of emissions, claim 52% of the wealth; meanwhile the poorest 50% account for 10% of global emissions and only about 8% of global income putting people in developing nations in the most vulnerable positions (Sarr). A compelling proposition is having carbon taxing fossil fuel companies that are causing damage and allowing these developing economies invest in renewable energies in order to have a more autonomous system over fossil fuel dependency and pollution. The funding will allow for better political accord regarding climate change and mending broken trust due to injustice caused by the disasters around the world.
The most intriguing plan came from the Secretary-General António Guterres who called for a Climate Solidarity Pact (el-Sheikh). The pact would mobilize international financial institutions, private sectors, and technical support for economics to vastly speed up their transition to renewable energy to meet the goal of the Paris agreement of only 1.5-degree temperature limit by 2030. The plan came with a roadmap and laid out ambitious ways to reduce carbon footprint. One of the targets discussed for mitigation is efforts to phase out coal power and inefficient fossil fuel subsidies to accelerate clean renewables as a critical factor in the fight for a more green economy (UNCC).
The 2023 UNFCCC (COP 28) will be taking place in Dubai starting November 30th for two weeks continuing the discussion and fight against climate change to reach goals that meet promises to the agenda at hand. A key point on the United Arab Emirates taking the conference is their reliance on fossil fuel dependency for economic gains and taking steps into the direction of being leaders for renewable energy sources to fix environmental issues that have occurred from greenhouse gas emissions. I look forward to seeing the changes that will be brought up and the hopeful transformation over lip services that have been occurring in the recent discussions.
References
Sarr, M. D. (2022, November 1). At cop 27, support poorest for climate loss and damage. Nature News. Retrieved January 25, 2023, from https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03474-1
Unfccc.int. (n.d.). Retrieved January 25, 2023, from https://unfccc.int/news/cop27-reaches-breakthrough-agreement-on-new-loss-and-damage-fund-for-vulnerable-countries
United Nations. (n.d.). Statement by the secretary-general at the conclusion of COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh secretary-general. United Nations. Retrieved January 25, 2023, from https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2022-11-19/statement-the-secretary-general-the-conclusion-of-cop27%C2%A0-sharm-el-sheikh%C2%A0%C2%A0
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