Decarbonization, negotiations and US President Biden

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COP27 has officially reached its midway point.

Delegates are wrapping up the first part of the negotiations, which have a more technical focus. This year they are centred on the implementation details of the rules of the Paris Agreement, finalised last year in Glasgow.

The COP27 Presidency has said that while there is “good progress” in many areas, a few items are set to be more “complex”, including the highly debated creation of a loss and damage fund to compensate developing countries for climate impacts.

Selwin Hart, Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on Climate Action, explained to UN News that government ministers will be arriving next week to devote time to resolve this, and some of the other “big picture” political issues.

“The clock is ticking… How to address the massive emissions gap, finance, and loss and damage, are major political issues. Parties, delegations and countries are then very focused on trying to resolve as much as possible while ensuring that the outcomes are as credible and match the level of ambition that the science demands”.

He also gave us insight as a former negotiator: next week will be the official period when delegates will get less sleep.

And for sure this newsletter editor too.

Outside of the negotiation rooms, today was ‘Decarbonization Day’ at COP27, and the conference was abuzz with proposed solutions and demonstrations from different sectors looking to reduce their carbon emissions, including the steel, cement, gas and even the fashion industry. We tell you all about it and more in our daily wrap.

Meanwhile, African civil society also continued calling for justice and pushing for an end to our global dependency on fossil fuels, giving heart-wrenching testimonies of the reality of climate change in vulnerable countries.

“Our message is simple: Keep fossil fuels on the ground,” a Ugandan activist told the main square of the conference, also asking leaders from developed countries to “pay up” on their promised climate finance.

Also today, President Joe Biden made a special appearance after missing the high-level summit earlier this week due to the midterm elections in the United States.

Participants crowded into the main plenary to listen to his speech, which lasted just over 20 minutes and quoted UN chief Antonio Guterres.

“We’re racing forward to do our part to avert the climate hell that the UN Secretary-General so passionately warned about,” he cautioned, calling for unity, and promising that the US will reach its emissions reduction goal by 2030.

Activists, however, were quick to react to his words, denouncing that he did not address the call for a loss and damage fund, the thorniest issue on the table at COP27.

There are still seven days left of the conference, and history has not been written yet.

In the meantime, we recap for you the highlights of the past week in today’s episode of our signature podcast, where you can learn more about the issues that are at the centre of this COP27. - UN News