COP27 daily updates Sunday November 6, 2022: Opening Day

COP27: A time for implementation

Setting the scene

The United Nations Climate Change Conference COP27 opened yesterday in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Set on the shores of the Red Sea, within the Sinai desert, and framed by the mountainous interior of St Catherine and Mount Sinai, this year’s COP27 will focus on action, implementation and the damage caused by climate change to the natural environment.

At a time of political headwinds (war in Ukraine, an energy crisis and rising global inflation) and increasingly deadly and extreme weather events, it remains to be seen what agreements can be made. There is a feeling of hope, urgency and the need for implementation. The outcomes of this year’s conference are more important than ever. Over the next few weeks we will bring you daily updates from the conference, keeping you up-to-date with the latest developments.

Opening remarks

In his opening remarks, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary, Simon Stiell, renewed calls for action, implementation and accountability, telling the conference’s delegates that:

“the litmus test of this and every future COP is how far deliberations are accompanied by action. Everybody, every single day, everywhere in the world, needs to do everything they possibly can to avert the climate crisis…COP27 sets out a new direction for a new era of implementation: where outcomes from the formal and informal process truly begin to come together to drive greater climate progress — and accountability for that progress,”

Stiell’s asked governments to focus on three critical areas:

1. A transformational shift to implementation of the Paris Agreement and turning the negotiations into concrete actions.
2. Progress on the critical workstreams of mitigation, adaption, finance and loss and damage.
3. Enhancing the delivery of transparency and accountability throughout the UN Climate Change process.

Sameh Shoukry, Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs and COP27 President, also set an ambitious vision for COP27 putting human need at the heart of global efforts to address climate change. Focusing the world’s attention on key elements that address the most fundamental needs of people everywhere, including water security, food security and health and energy security.

Loss and Damage hits the agenda

Following Shoukry’s comments it was perhaps unsurprising that Loss and damage was included on the official agenda for the first time in COP history. This is the debate that says developing countries and small island states, most at risk from climate change, should be compensated by industrial countries through new funding facilities to help cover the loss and damage caused by increasingly extreme weather events. The outcome of this debate has the potential to make or break the conference right from the start.?