Cop 27 to assess actions to hit climate goal: UNFCCC

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) said today it sees the next Cop 27 UN climate summit focusing on assessing actions to meet emission reduction goals.

Cop 27 is going to be about checking and measuring achievements and taking informed decisions to meet goals to reduce carbon emissions, UNFCCC mitigation division Team Lead Kusum Lata told delegates today at the International Energy Week 2022.

"We know our goals and we know that we are very short of our targets," she said. The UN's Paris agreement, signed in 2015, set a goal to limit warming to "well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels", and to pursue efforts to limit temperature rises to 1.5°C.

To reach this target, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said that levels of human-created emissions of CO2 must fall by at least 45pc globally from 2010 levels by 2030.

"We are now in a phase which allows all the parties and governments to scale up co-operation and mobilise financial resources," she said. This follows the "good" outcome of Cop 26 last year, where guidelines and the full implementation of the Paris agreement were able to be finalised, she said.

The Cop 26 summit agreed last year that countries should return with enhanced national determined contributions (NDCs) this year, rather than waiting the usual five years for them to be renewed. A rulebook for Article 6 was agreed at Cop 26, six years after it was included in the Paris climate agreement, and included rules against double counting of emission reductions and a government-to-government market. It was also the first Cop to mention coal and fossil fuels in its cover text, setting a new precedent even if the language on subsidies was watered down.

"We have to be very quantitative and see where we are... we also want to increase ambition and enhance implementation, two things that have to go hand in hand," she said.

"For that we need partnerships, we need governments and private stakeholders to work together and strengthen relationships." She said that "real targets" from industries, stakeholders and financial institutions were needed. "It is not something that only governments can work on," she said.

She added that finance is going to be another big focus at Cop 27. The Egyptian Cop 27 president Sameh Shoukry said the country wants to prioritise finance and mitigation in negotiations ahead of the conference in November in Sharm El Sheikh.

By Caroline Varin