The first week of COP27 is almost at an end.
Co-facilitators of the discussions across the many negotiating items are concluding their informal considerations of agenda items by forwarding their recommendations to the closing plenaries of the Subsidiary Bodies (SBs). These SB plenaries are scheduled for tonight (Saturday, 12 November 2022) and will take place post the drafting of this blog.
The SB recommendations will then be forwarded to the Presidency for consideration by the decision making bodies of the CMP, CMA, and COP next week; and the hard to settle issues will attract the attention of the highest diplomacy.
Some key issues that I’ll report more deeply on in my summary report in a couple of days’ time include:
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Guidance on the priorities and red lines associated with climate finance, including replenishment of the US$100B per year Green Climate Fund; and the inter-relationships with gender considerations, access policies, complementarity with other institutions, REDD+, the UNFCCC and its principles, just transitions, loss and damage (L&D) and national adaptation plans
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Establishing a timeline for work through 2024 on L&D and trying to secure adequate financing; and potentially establishing an operational entity - discussions also included
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the importance of an equitable distribution of the global carbon budget based on the total carbon budget (not just the remaining budget)
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Carbon markets: the transition of Clean Development Mechanism activities under Art 6.4; and use of CERs towards first NDCs; and host party reporting including operation of the mechanism registry and possible linkages with international trading under Art 6.2
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Progress on a Programme underpinning the Global Goal on Adaptation
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Scaling up mitigation ambitions and implementation (including possibly identifying major emitting developing countries as a new category of Parties) while safeguarding the nationally determined nature of countries’ NDC pledges
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The road to the 2023 Global Stocktake (which will be a major milestone for COP28 in Dubai)
Progress on the many agenda items seems quite good and positive throughout the week, but it remains unclear to me how progress will be maintained next week given the technical complexity, political sensitivity, and insufficient time Parties have had on various on issues.
I attended the ISO launch of its 'Our 2050 World'
Net Zero Guidelines on Friday evening; it saw the ISO President Ulrika Francke, and UNFCCC Climate Champion Nigel Topping citing that it was developed in 3 months by over 1,200 individuals from 100 countries (including Engineers Australia own
submission and engagement).
I also met with Australia’s new climate ambassador,
Kristin Tilley and she showed much interest in not only the launch of Engineers Australia’s Climate Smart Engineering Initiative (CSEI) but also our ambitions to coordinate and convene a major engineering presence at COP28 (Dubai) in 2023. I also managed to have a great chat with
Joel Fitzgibbon and there is clearly a lot of good will for not only Engineers Australia but also its leadership on the climate agenda.
Photo (L-R): Mark Bonner; Australia's new Climate Ambassador, Kristin Tilley; and Professor Stephen Bygrave (ANU, and a good friend of mine).The Business Council for Sustainable Development (BCSDA), a partner of Engineers Australia in the Professional Bodies Climate Action Charter ANZ Forum, in collaboration with Worley hosted a side-event on 11 November 2002. The session playfully back casted from 2030 what a desired climate outcome could be and then described what the transformation from 2022 onwards need be. Sue Brown (Worley Grp Exec Sustainability) and Tiernan O’Rourke ((Worley CFO), Chris Greig (UQ & Princeton University) and Scott Maloney (Teck Resources VP Environment) with masterful moderation by Andrew Petersen (CEO, BCSDA) painted both probable and plausible technology, financial and behavioural pathways to net zero emissions.
Finally, I attended a briefing with SB chairs representing BINGO (business and industry NGOs - see link) on progress being made to date. The SB chairs are mandated to change over after COP27, and so as an appreciation of the work of all the NGO constituencies informing agendas and processes (noting there were '00s of registered observers in this session), they decided to take a photo (I'm at the back behind the SBI chair and to the right of the UNFCCC secretariat).
As a side-note, President Joe Biden was afforded a dedicated plenary session yesterday on 11 November 2022 (limited to heads of delegations and few observer constituency leaders) to address Parties; he stated that world leaders can no longer plead ignorance and that time to confront the crisis is running out. As I was walking to the ISO reception I captured on video his cavalcade (there were two Cadillac "Beasts") leaving the COP27 precinct for Air Force One; it was interesting to note that out of the 30 or so (huge) vehicles in the convoy, not one EV or hybrid was amongst them. Somewhat similarly, there is growing media backlash on COP27s carbon footprint as heads of state fly in and out of Sharm el-Sheikh in their private jets; one media source counted and publicly reported that there were over 400 jets for the Leaders Summit at the beginning of the conference.