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Why should engineers be interested in COP27?

By Mark Bonner posted 26-10-2022 09:31 AM

  

The 27th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) along with the 17th session of the COP serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP) and the 4th session of the COP serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA) will all convene in Egypt under the auspices of COP27 from 6 to 18 November 2022. 

COP27 is set to explore over 173 formal agenda items; many of which are under the guidance of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI). At the end of the first week of the COP, the SBSTA and SBI will forward consensus-based Party recommendations to the CMP, CMA and COP (depending on agenda item) for consideration and decision if possible. If a decision is not possible, then these three bodies will defer as need be to the political processes involving heads of state and ministerial level negotiations.

And while the COPs are scheduled to finish on the second Friday, it's due to these last minute political interventions on typically long-lived and complex negotiating issues that the final gavel of the conference seldom falls until the Sunday.     

Who's in charge?

The management of this year’s COP, which is the supreme decision-making body of all the above climate treaties, transfers from the UK Government’s stewardship (called ‘Presidency’) to the Egyptian Government. Egypt’s Presidency of the COP will oversee international negotiations for not only this meeting but for the year ahead until COP28 when the UAE will take over as President in late 2023.

Egypt’s future interactions will necessarily involve the entire world over this period; these three climate treaties cover some 98 per cent of global emissions and over 90 per cent of global GDP is covered by net zero emissions commitments under the Paris Agreement.

Will Engineers Australia be attending?

Engineers Australia will be attending COP27. It will represent and promote the engineering profession in the business of the UNFCCC and its critically influential climate agendas for Australia, as well engage with its global community including civil society and non-government organisations (for and not for profit).

A core goal will be to raise awareness within this globally enabling and decision-making community for the engineering profession’s pivotal role in addressing climate change including not only mitigation and enhanced resilience but also in the safeguarding of economic prosperity in what is an increasingly changing climate, in the presence of strong and continuing geopolitical headwinds, and recognising the need for re-engineered and new engineering systems to foster technology rich pathways to drive a globally decarbonised future.

What will be the 'vibe' at COP27?

COP27 was recently described as an ‘implementing COP’ by His Excellency Mr Mahmoud Zayed, Ambassador of Egypt in Australia; and so, it will likely focus on maintaining the momentum of past decisions and current commitments. As such it could take on an air of utilitarian determination to get through the sheer number of agendas and issues, and could lack the spectacle and flair of COP26 which made many announcements in an effort to signal that the ‘below 1.5-degree Celsius temperature goal’ is both plausible and possible.

Of course, COP27 has to also share the limelight with the G20 Leader’s Summit which will be hosted in parallel in Bali from 15 to 16 November 2022; and so there will likely be much fewer announcements made.

An example of an engineering-relevant agenda

The technology agenda is arguably one of the more engineering-relevant items amongst the many and broad agenda items to be negotiated over the COP’s two weeks, and remains central to the mitigation efforts and ambitions of all countries.

The immediate need for emissions reductions at pace and scale inevitably generates opportunities for investment in innovative technologies, and of course in the innovation of next generation technologies creating prospects for higher productivity in energy and resource use, and alternative technologies to help achieve an equitable necessary transition to a decarbonised future.

Such investments also provide the potential to deliver powerful co-benefits in social goals such as eradication of abject poverty and achieving SDGs while also helping avoid the economic stranding of productive assets.

The UNFCCC’s Technology Mechanism was established outside of the legal requirements of the treaties but is governed under the Convention with the aim of fostering globally the technology climate actions needed to address the needs of the Convention, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement.

It is directly and indirectly relevant to many other elements of the climate treaties, including the technology implementation arm of the UNFCCC called the Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN), the technology policy arm called the Technology Executive Committee (TEC), the project level fund called Global Environment Facility (GEF), the climate finance arm called Green Climate Fund (GCF), and strategic climate action arms called National Adaptation Plans (NAP) and Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMA); and of course pretty much all of the non-financial pledges within all Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

The broad technology agenda encompasses engineering issues relating not only to the international acceptability of climate-relevant technologies (such as the eligibility rules and governance of complex solutions such as carbon dioxide capture and storage) but also on deployment issues including access to and affordability and protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) and transboundary movement of environmental equipment and solutions.

This necessarily brings important inter-governmental and multilateral organisations to this global discussion such as (among many others) the International Standards Organisation (ISO) on the convening power of standards to address climate change, the International Energy Agency on clean energy pathways, the World Intellectual Property Rights Organisation (WIPO) on IPR and World Trade Organisation (WTO) on trade issues and current discussions on Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanisms.

There are also important engineering linkages between the Technology Mechanism and other mechanisms, including the Finance Mechanism.  In previous years for example it has been proposed to establish an IPR funding window within the GCF's US$100Bn per year funding envelope; and this remains a live issue for both developed and developing countries but for different reasons.

IPR is considered to be a major incentive to innovation by both developed and developing countries, and to be protected from being accessed either for free and/or replicated cheaply by some nations. For many developing countries, IPR is central to their decoupling of emissions from their economic development ambitions.

Science and applied science is central 

The work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is independent of the UNFCCC but is often requested by the COP to give scientific consideration to relevant issues, is germane to the applied sciences of engineering systems and technologies. Engineers Australia expects to be formally accredited to the IPCC by the end of 2022 or early in 2023; and this will be timely given the imminent commencement of the IPCC’s 7th Assessment cycle.

The IPCC’s 6th Assessment Report provides the international climate community with the most up to date and best available scientific knowledge. Its findings (and any interim work arising from the 7th Assessment Report cycle) are critically important for the preparations of the 1st Global Stocktake in 2023 to inform and shape the required NDC pledge updates of parties in 2025 for 2035. This Stocktake will be especially significant for the engineering profession due to a very apparent disconnect between the scientific understanding on climate change and the insufficiency of current actions to safeguard even the least ambitious of the Paris Agreement climate goals.

Outcomes sought 

Engineers Australia will continue to build on its reputation and validate its role as a significant international engineering voice on behalf of its membership and the profession in the business of the international climate, energy and sustainability communities and related multilateral processes. It will aim to ensure that the engineering voice is heard and understood in the many high‑quality opportunities that support the need for real-world and pragmatic engineering evidence, advice and action.

Engineers Australia will also explore how it can add-value by informing and shaping engineering relevant processes, including for example the recent UN Secretary General established UN Council of Engineers for the Energy Transition (CEET).

The effectiveness of Engineers Australia's participation at the end of COP27 will be indicated by its ability to access key influencers, engaging in high-quality interactions and collaborations, and the nature of opportunities discovered and planned for, and universal expressions of support for the work of Engineers Australia on climate change, and particularly its Climate Smart Engineering Initiative (CSEI) and Climate Smart Engineering Conference 2021 and 2022.

Engineers Australia's COP27 team includes Mark Bonner, Head of Climate Smart Engineering Initiative (attending both weeks), and Damian Ogden, GM Policy and Advocacy (attending second week); along with the support of the Communications team back in Australia.

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