What is climate change?
Climate is an area's long-term average of weather. A change in those typical conditions is called climate change. Humans' use of oil, gas, and coal for their buildings, industry, and transportation is to blame for the rapid climate change we are currently witnessing.Â
These fossil fuels release greenhouse gasses upon combustion, primarily carbon dioxide (CO2). The planet's temperature increases as a result of these gasses trapping solar heat. The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has increased by 50%, and the world is currently 1.1C warmer than it was in the 19th century.
The Earth is Warming-Up
According to climate scientists, temperature increases must slow down if we want to prevent the worst effects of climate change. By 2100, it is reportedly necessary to limit global warming to 1.5C. The globe might still warm by more than 2C by then, though, if no additional action is taken.Â
By the end of the century, the independent Climate Action Tracker group predicted that the planet would have warmed by 2.4C. If nothing is done, scientists believe that global warming could surpass 4C in the future, resulting in severe heat waves, the loss of millions of houses to rising sea levels, and the irrevocable extinction of plant and animal species.
What effects does climate change have?
Globally, extreme weather events are already getting more and more dangerous, endangering lives and livelihoods. As cropland transforms into desert, some areas may become uninhabitable as global temperatures rise.Â
Currently experiencing its fifth season of poor rainfall, East Africa is putting up to 22 million people at risk of being hungry, according to the UN's World Food Programme. As was the case last summer in Europe, extreme temperatures can significantly raise the risk of wildfires. In comparison to the average, France and Germany burned nearly seven times more land between January and the middle of July 2022.
In addition, as it becomes warmer, formerly frozen earth will melt in regions like Siberia, releasing greenhouse gasses that have been stored for ages and accelerating climate change.Â
Extreme rainfall in other areas is producing record flooding, as recently observed in China, Pakistan, and Nigeria. Because they have fewer resources to adapt to climate change, people who live in developing nations are predicted to suffer the most. However, these countries are frustrated since they have the lowest greenhouse gas emissions.
How Global Warming Might Happen
Oceans on the world and its habitats are also in danger. A study financed by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and released in April 2022 claims that 10% to 15% of marine species are already in danger of going extinct. Land animals will also have a tougher time locating the food and water they require to survive in a warmer world. For instance, elephants will have difficulty finding the 150-300 liters of water they require each day, while polar bears may go extinct when their habitat's ice sheet melts. If action is not taken, at least 550 species might become extinct this century, according to scientists.
How will global climate change impact things?
Globally, the effects of climate change will vary. The IPCC, a climate organization affiliated with the UN, states that if the increase in global temperature cannot be limited to 1.5C:
Extreme rainfall will increase the risk of floods in the UK and around Europe.
Extreme heatwaves and extensive drought will affect Middle Eastern nations.
Pacific island nations may vanish due to rising sea levels.
Droughts and food shortages are predicted to affect many African countries.
The western US is likely to experience drought, whilst other regions will have storms that are more intense.
Extreme heat waves and a rise in wildfire casualties are anticipated to hit Australia.
What actions do governments take?
Countries agreed that the only way to combat climate change is by working together, and in a historic agreement made in Paris in 2015, they committed to making every effort to limit global temperature below 1.5C. At the COP27 meeting, which will be held in Egypt in November, world leaders will adopt more ambitious targets for decreasing emissions, including reducing the use of fossil fuels. By 2050, many nations have vowed to achieve "net zero" emissions. This entails minimizing greenhouse gas emissions and making up any remaining emissions by removing an equivalent amount of greenhouse gas from the environment. Experts concur that this is still feasible but that significant adjustments must be made immediately by corporations, governments, and people.
What can people do to help?
Governments and companies need to make significant changes, but scientists say we can reduce our impact on the climate by making some little lifestyle adjustments:
Take fewer flights.
Use an electric vehicle or live without a car.
Reduce your intake of dairy and meat.
You should utilize less energy.
When appliances like washing machines need to be replaced, buy energy-efficient models.
Make your home's insulation better.
Use an electric heat pump instead of a gas heating system.
What is IPCC?
For those who are unaware, The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the United Nations body charged with evaluating the science surrounding climate change. Its responsibility is to examine available climate change data and present its findings. In other words, they are the world's foremost authorities on the state of the climate and what will likely occur in the future if we don't alter our current course of action.
Their Reports
They serve as the main conclusions of Working Group II's (WGII) contribution to the IPCC's Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). The report expands upon the contributions made by WGII to the IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report (AR5), three Special Reports, and Working Group I (WGI) to the AR6 cycle. In comparison to previous IPCC assessments, this report recognizes the connection of climate, ecosystems, biodiversity, and human societies and more thoroughly incorporates knowledge from the natural, ecological, social, and economic sciences. The assessment of non-climatic global trends, such as biodiversity loss, general unsustainable resource consumption, land and ecosystem degradation, rapid urbanization, human demographic shifts, social and economic inequalities, and a pandemic, are contrasted with the impacts and risks of climate change as well as adaptation strategies.
Impacts and Dangers as Observed and Anticipated
With effects linked to climate change and important concerns outlined throughout the report, information based on observed and predicted impacts and risks caused by climate hazards, exposure, and susceptibility has grown since AR5. Impacts and risks are described in terms of their losses---both financial and non-financial---and harms. Risks resulting from identified weaknesses and climate change responses are underlined. Risks are projected at various levels of global warming and for paths that exceed 1.5C global warming level for several decades for the short-term (2021-2040), the mid-term (2041-2060), and the long-term (2081-2100). Various climate hazards occurring simultaneously and multiple risks interacting lead to complex risks, which compound overall risk and spread via linked systems and across areas.
Adaptation Strategies and Facilitating Environment
In response to present climate change, adaptation mostly entails adjusting current systems to reduce climate hazards and susceptibility. There are several adaptation alternatives that can be utilized to assist manage the effects of expected climate change, but how well they are implemented relies on how well governance and decision-making systems are able to handle them. Development that is climate-resilient can also benefit from these and other enabling factors.
Building Climate-Resilient Communities
In order to advance sustainable development for all, climate resilient development combines mitigation with adaptation strategies and their supporting conditions. Equity issues and system transitions in the areas of land, ocean, and ecosystems, urban and infrastructure, energy, industry, and society are all part of climate resilient development, which also includes adaptations for the wellbeing of people, ecosystems, and the planet. In order to achieve climate resilient development, attention must be paid to both the areas where people and ecosystems coexist as well as to the preservation and upkeep of ecosystem function on a global scale.
Developmental paths that effectively combine mitigation and adaptation measures to enhance sustainable development are known as pathways for achieving climate resilient development. The RCP and SSP scenarios used throughout AR6 may briefly overlap with the climate resilient development pathways, but these pathways do not follow any specific scenario everywhere or throughout the course of time.
What Is COP27?
Every year, the United Nations (UN) holds climate conferences to help governments reach consensus on actions to slow the rise of the global temperature. They are known as COPs, or "Conference of the Parties," for short. The parties are the participating nations that ratified the first UN climate accord in 1992. The 27th annual UN climate conference is known as COP27. Sharm el-Sheikh is the location, and it runs through November 18.
The COP27 Vision
Results that are inclusive, governed by rules, ambitious, and substantive, commensurate with the challenge, supported by research, and founded on values that build on agreements, decisions, pledges, and promises made between Rio 1992 and Glasgow 2021. Through emissions reduction, stepped-up adaptation activities, and increased flows of suitable financing, we aim to hasten the pace of global climate action. We acknowledge that "just transition" is still a top concern for developing nations everywhere.
The COP27 Mission
Mitigation; To keep global warming well below 2C and to maintain the 1.5C target, we must band together. This calls for audacious and immediate action from all parties, especially those in a position to do so and those who can and do set an example. It also calls for a rise in ambition from all parties. The COP27 will be a chance for nations to follow through on their commitments and pledges to advance the goals of the Paris Agreement and strengthen the Convention's implementation. The Glasgow Pact's request to review mitigation ambition in NDCs and develop a work plan for it should be put into action this year.
Adaptation; Heatwaves, floods, and forest fires are only a few examples of the extreme weather occurrences that have become part of daily life. At the COP26, international leaders, governments, and state parties to the convention reaffirmed their commitment to stepping up global action on adaptation. One important effect of COP26 was the Global Goal of Adaptation. If we are to track and evaluate our progress toward boosting resilience and supporting the most vulnerable communities, we must ensure that COP27 makes the critically important progress and urge all parties to exhibit the essential political will. Beyond the global objective of adaptation, the COP27 should see an improved global agenda for action on adaptation, reinforcing what we decided in Paris and further clarified in the Glasgow Pact regarding placing adaptation at the forefront of global action.
Finance; We must advance all financial-related matters on the agenda at COP27 while making significant progress on the vital subject of climate finance. To meet the needs of developing countries, especially Africa, LDCs, and SIDS, there is a need for increased financial transparency and facilitated access. Adequate and predictable climate finance is crucial to achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement. Following up on existing commitments and pledges made at Copenhagen, Cancun, Paris, and Glasgow is necessary to clarify where we stand and what has to be done next. Increased confidence between rich and poor nations will result from the delivery of the yearly USD 100 billion, which will demonstrate that real pledges are being kept.
Collaboration; It is crucial for the CO27 Presidency to strengthen and facilitate agreement in the negotiations if it hopes to produce concrete outcomes in a fair way. The development of cooperation and collaboration will aid in the achievement of our four goals and ensuring that the world adopts a more resilient, sustainable, and human-centered economic model. Consensus-based discussions are taking place at the UN, and for an agreement to be reached, all parties must actively participate. We are working assiduously to secure proper representation and involvement from all pertinent stakeholders at COP27, notably from representatives of nations in the African region that are more and more affected by the effects of climate change and vulnerable communities. We must put the Glasgow decision into practice and start its implementation. It is crucial to place people at the forefront of climate negotiations. To change the way we relate to our world, governments, business, and civil society must collaborate. We need to propose fresh ideas and inventions to lessen the negative effects of climate change. Additionally, we must quickly scale up and reproduce any other climate-friendly ideas in order to deploy them in poor nations.
Summit Session
The official opening plenary of the twenty-seventh session of the Conference of the Parties, the seventeenth session of the Conference of the Parties serves as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, and the fourth session of the Conference of the Parties serves as the meeting of the Paris Agreement, also known as the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2022, in Sharm El-Sheikh, Arab Republic of Egypt (Egypt), will begin at 10:00 on Sunday, November 6.Â
On November 7 and 8, 2022, when the conference's opening high-level segment for heads of state and government will also take place, President of Egypt His Excellency Mr. Abdel Fattah El-Sisi will extend an invitation to heads of state and government to attend the Sharm El-Sheikh Climate Implementation Summit. The invitation to the Summit in Egypt highlights how crucial it is for world leaders to put important climate-related decisions into practice and translate them into actionable steps and credible plans, to keep raising ambition and building on the outcomes of previous Conferences of the Parties, including the Glasgow COP 26 outcomes, and to maintain their high-level commitment to climate change issues, to combat the climate emergency, and to support coordinated action to combat climate change.
The program of events for the participation of Heads of State and Government on November 7 and 8 will include the delivery of national statements, high-level round tables organized by the Government of Egypt, and high-level side events organized by other World Leaders after the formal opening of the Summit, led by the President of Egypt on November 7. Parties, observer States, UN agencies, multilateral organizations, and other observer organizations may participate in the high-level section.
Global Food Security Achievements
Launched in 2017, the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture (KJWA) integrates soils, nutrient use, water, livestock, methods for assessing adaptation, and the socio-economic and food security dimensions of climate change. It also identifies strategies to transform food systems and encourages commitments to action to be carried out.
The UN's 2021 Food Systems Summit saw over 100 nations sign up to create national food system transformation agendas. Approximately 90% of developing countries have included adaptation in their NDCs, with agriculture serving as one of the key components. Pilot projects across Africa are investigating strategies to reward farmers who implement HYRAP4 with Carbon Finance.
FAO and UNDP have created a 5-year program called "Scaling up Climate Ambition on Land Use and Agriculture through Nationally Determined Contributions and National Adaptation Plans" (SCALA) with the goal of transforming the climate-sensitive agriculture industry.
FAO and IAAS6 established the Youth for Green and Climate-Resilient Agriculture Program (YCRA) to aid and support youth-led initiatives in the agricultural sector.
More than $1.6 billion has been invested by the Green Climate Fund ("GCF") to help smallholder farmers adapt to climate change and supply the world's rising food demand. The GCF focuses on three transformation pathways: support for resilient agriculture, support for early warning systems for smallholder farmers, restructuring of the food supply chains, ensuring that commodities can reach markets more quickly, and minimizing food loss and waste.
More work is required despite ongoing efforts to address food insecurity. A move to sustainable global food systems necessitates progress on three fronts at once:
Utilizing sustainable, climate-smart methods of production that will boost resilience of the food industry to shocks and extreme weather while reducing emissions and maintaining productivity.
Improving access to cold networks (13% of world food production is lost due to a lack of cold chains); and reducing food loss (now 33% of global food production) across the harvesting, shipping, and consumption stages.
Producing substitutes, encouraging the change to more native plants, crops, and grains, and modifying demand for food in order to diets that can remain within the limits of the planet (thus reducing the current reliance on wheat, maize, rice, potatoes, and increasing the resilience of cultivations).
Finance Innovation for Climate and Development
82% of the funding was public (38% bilaterally and 44% multilaterally), 16% came from private investors, and the final 2% came from export credits. Only 21% of these flows were routed through grants from bilateral and multilateral development banks, while the majority of these flows (58% of the total flows) took the form of public loans, adding to the debt loads of developing nations. These monies have been mostly utilized to support climate projects in the areas of energy (32% of total financial flows), transportation (14%), agriculture, forestry, and fisheries (9%), and water supply & sanitation (8%).
Previous Successes in Climate and Development Finance Innovation
Green bonds: The total amount of green bonds issued in 2019 was $259 billion, and in 2021, the amount issued in developing nations more than doubled to a record $95 billion (from $41 billion in 2020).
EIBs, or environmental impact bonds, are bonds whose repayment is indexed to anticipated and/or actual environmental benefits. As only four EIBs have been issued to date, the use of these bonds is still in its infancy. The first EIB was issued in 2016 by Quantified Ventures with DC Water to fund a $25 million green stormwater infrastructure project.
Blended finance: Allianz Group and International Finance Corporation inked a blended finance collaboration in November 2021 with the goal of establishing a global platform for investments connected to climate change and offering up to $3 billion to private businesses in emerging economies.
The IMF's role: In 2022, the Resilience and Sustainability Trust will be established, a global framework that aims to provide long-term financing and low-interest loans to vulnerable countries by re-channeling Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) from countries with strong external positions. This follows the allocation of $650 billion in SDRs that was completed in 2021.
Voluntary carbon markets: Despite their limited use, voluntary carbon markets---on which participants sell their carbon credits voluntarily---are growing in popularity. In fact, their global size quadrupled in just one year, reaching $2 billion in 2021. Recently, a few private projects were started to offer a code of behavior and instructions on how to use carbon credits (e.g. the Voluntary Carbon Market Integrity Initiative).
Private philanthropy: Philanthropic giving can be a source of funding for climate-positive projects, but it is still not being used to its full potential. In 2020, grants for reducing global warming were $6--10 billion (+14% from 2019), or around 2% of all philanthropic giving worldwide.
Innovative Finance's Purpose for Climate and Development
Establish a global framework for creative climate finance: A manual based on the principles of inclusion, equity, and justice that includes clear instructions for each stakeholder (such as when and how to use cutting-edge climate finance tools like debt-for-climate swaps/green or environmental impact bonds/blended finance, how to effectively manage funding processes, etc.) would enable potential investors to move from making climate finance commitments to taking action.
Help poor nations locate and create a complete package of bundled, bankable climate projects: The goal is to encourage climate investments, particularly through skill building or by producing specialized guides, to assist countries in unlocking more high-quality climate finance.
To promote the development of climate finance platforms, create a global center or marketplace for climate finance: A global hub or marketplace would enable to facilitate the meeting of supply (e.g., public and private actors from developed countries, MDBs, philanthropies) and demand (e.g., developing countries) of climate finance and enable to accelerate and scale the creation of climate finance platforms. Developing countries struggle with managing funding procedures quickly and finding the right set of partners to access climate finance.
Energy Future Investment: Green Hydrogen
Today, natural gas is mostly used to manufacture 90 Mt of hydrogen each year. In 2020, less than 0.5% of this hydrogen was generated using renewable energy. In order to refine oil and make ammonia or methanol, the oil and gas and chemical sectors account for 95% of the world's current demand for hydrogen. Both industrialized nations and emerging market economies have proposed aggressive policy goals for hydrogen uptake. In the meantime, the hydrogen value chain has seen the development of a pipeline of mature project proposals. Approximately 680 proposals for large-scale hydrogen projects totaling USD 240 billion have been made as of today, however only 10% (USD 22 billion) have resulted in a final investment choice (FID).Â
Only two of these projects---and only one of those has been commissioned thus far---are situated in emerging markets. Current global plans for electrolyzers aim for 100 GW by 2030, and developed economies have already proposed aggressive regulatory targets for hydrogen imports. In response to the RePowerEU plan to phase out imports of fossil fuels far before 2030, the EU has established an ambitious hydrogen target of 20 MT by that time. This includes a target of 10 MT for both domestic EU hydrogen supply and imports of hydrogen from outside the EU.Â
It is clear that developing nations and emerging economies are falling behind in the deployment of green hydrogen projects as a result of numerous difficulties, including certification, storage, mobility, and transportation. Another issue is that green hydrogen is very expensive and therefore not commercially viable. Such obstacles will be solved by the continuing advancement of technology and the predicted novel solutions in this area. Until then, practical issues that have been raised by the private sector, investors, and potential producing nations worldwide may slow down the rapid at-scale production of green hydrogen. These issues include cost barriers brought on by the absence of risk-free investment opportunities, vibrant green product markets, and ambitious policy frameworks.Â
The goal of this multi-stakeholder roundtable is to promote communication across nations along the entire value chain for green hydrogen. The goal of the session is to enable a thorough discussion on the future of energy, with a particular focus on hydrogen. Its aim is to enable a better understanding of the current status of hydrogen production, anticipated scenarios of production to meet needs, as well as the current and future policies and their impact on that goal. The debate will be based on the analysis, findings, and conclusions of the relevant fora as well as the Glasgow Breakthrough on Hydrogen.
Water Security
At both the local (such as the Lusaka Water Security Initiative to protect water in Zambia) and international levels (such as the Pacific Institute which produces research and informational resources about water conservation globally), there are numerous initiatives being launched to improve water security in water-stressed countries. Additionally, coordinated action is taken to protect water resources, such as the Ramsar Convention, which was established in 1975 and is assisting in the preservation of more than 2,000 wetlands, or the Water Convention, which was established in 1992 and is currently ratified by more than 40 parties and aims to enhance the management and protection of transboundary water sources (both surface and groundwater).Â
To manage transboundary water sources properly, numerous steps are being implemented. Indeed, 129 of the 153 countries that share transboundary waters submitted practical agreements for transboundary water cooperation, according to the monitoring exercise carried out in 2020 jointly by UNECE and UNESCO. Following are a few examples of these arrangements:
The Mekong River Commission was established in 1995 to improve the Mekong River's sustainable management among the nations it flows through (Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam), ensuring a win-win situation for the local people and businesses.
To increase fair and equitable access to hydroelectricity for populations, the Organization for the Development of the Gambia River was established in 2015 with the goal of rationalizing the management of the river's shared resources at its confluences with the nations of Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and Senegal.
The Goal of Water Security
The purpose of the multi-stakeholder roundtable is to promote communication between parties and various participants in the water sector. With an emphasis on integrating water security action into the global climate agenda, the session's goal is to create a space for a deep dialogue to address a wide variety of water-related concerns. The talks will be based on the scientifically sound IPCC 6th Assessment Round Papers and pertinent UN water-related reports. Additionally, it will include the exchange of insights from ongoing projects and international efforts to address the issue.
Sustainability of Vulnerable Communities and Climate Change
Article 9 of the Paris Agreement called for balancing funding for adaptation and mitigation efforts as well as directing more public and grant-based resources toward adaptation. Projects related to adaptation and resilience received 7% of global climate financing in 2019 (up from 5% in 2018).
Through its guiding principles, the 2015-adopted Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015- 2030) highlights the significance of enhancing local communities' climate change resilience.
As part of a regional strategy to encourage and further strengthen adaptation activities at scale in the African continent, H.E. President of Egypt launched the Africa Adaptation Initiative in 2015 at the Paris COP on behalf of the AU. In its recently released Climate Change and Resilient Development Strategy and Action Plan (2022--2032), the African Union emphasizes the significance of vulnerable populations' participation in the creation of climate-responsive policies.
In order to ensure that everyone is safeguarded by early warning systems within five years, the UN Secretary-General has requested WMO to lead new initiatives this year.
According to estimates, 216 million people could be displaced from their homes by 2050, 85.7 million of whom would live in Sub-Saharan Africa. Despite this, national and local communities do not have the necessary resources to prevent, plan for, and adapt to the effects of climate change.
Towards The Sustainability of Vulnerable Communities and the Climate Change Goal
The purpose of this roundtable is to discuss ways to improve local responses to the growing impacts of climate change, particularly scaling up long-term climate adaptation solutions, improving crisis preparedness and disaster risk reduction, addressing widespread forced displacement, enhancing community resilience, and identifying entry points to speed up financing for local climate adaptation.Â
It also seeks to identify methods for addressing the effects of climate change on migration and displacement, as well as ways to carry out the goals set forth in international agreements, and to coordinate the efforts of various stakeholders in order to deal with disasters and degradation brought on by the climate and weather.
Reference
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