Reflections on COP27 from Chief Sustainability Officer, Dana Haidan

Earlier this month world leaders, politicians, scientists, and activists, including children and young people from across the world, met for COP27 in Egypt to discuss the future of global climate change. The global economic and geopolitical context in which the conference took place is tense and complex, however, it is a critical moment in time. While COP meetings always fill me with hope, seeing so many governments, companies, and citizens come together determined to fight climate change, I also can’t deny my fear from seeing that global warming is no longer a distant threat. It is happening now.

By 2030 climate change is expected to push an additional 132 million into extreme poverty – many of them women, girls and marginalised communities. To bring it closer to home, the UK suffered extreme heatwaves in June, July and August of this year causing record temperature of 40 degrees Celsius, the highest ever recorded leading to the Met Office declaring a red warning and a national emergency. The south-east and north of the UK experienced heavy rainfalls just 2 weeks ago causing floods that are damaging roads and disrupting rail operations across the country and that’s just a small glimpse. But there are reasons to be optimistic: 83% of global GHG emissions are now covered by economy-wide net zero pledges and the role of businesses like ours has never been more pivotal. The environmental commitments we made in our Better Connections Plan earlier this year remain firm despite global challenges.

Outcomes of COP27

There is always a lot of subtlety and nuance behind the outcomes of COP meetings, but it felt like COP27 was a point of inflection where the narrative shifted in very visible ways from emissions reduction to adaptation and compensation. The issue of climate justice took centre stage at COP27, in terms of intra-regional justice and intergenerational justice. The debates over financial compensation to emerging economies by the rich dominated discussions. Highly driven by the fact that industrial countries are the ones driving emissions while emerging countries suffer the consequences as they are ill-equipped and resourced to face the challenges. This led to the announcement of the ‘Loss and Damage Fund’, which has been over a decade in the making.

What are we doing

The voices and representation of youth and children have never been as loud as they were at COP27. They made their voices heard in fear over their future and, I feel reassured that we are doing more to listen to the next generation through our work with our Youth Advisory Council. This work is imperative in ensuring we stay grounded in their lived experience as they grapple with the impacts of climate change.

While COP26 in Glasgow marked a pivotal moment where countries agreed to commit to phase down coal use, COP27 closed without reaching a similar commitment to phasing down fossil fuels, which has always been a highly contested issue, but it is the only way forward. Business has a huge role to play through setting bold net zero plans, which is a key component in our Better Connections Plan. Virgin Media and O2 were the first UK networks to commit to net zero operations by 2025, and now, we’re raising the bar together – aiming for net zero by 2040 not just in our operations, but across our products and supply chain too. That’s 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement and the UK’s target of reaching net zero by 2050. We’re also one of the first ‘pathfinder’ companies that achieved the Carbon Trust’s new Route to Net Zero Standard, and we’ve joined The Climate Pledge to align our environmental commitments with the Science Based Targets initiative’s (STBi) new Net-Zero Standard.

Since COP26, the UK continues to be a significant driver at COP27 for developing solutions for the mass adoption of zero emissions vehicles; a key element in our carbon reduction strategy is switching to 100% EV fleet.?All these efforts are our way of doing our part as a business to keep global temperatures well below 1.5 degrees Celsius, another key commitment that came out of COP27, which is the only way we can win this global fight against climate change.

What next

It takes every single one of us to get out there and our collective daily choices make all the difference and can shift the way businesses operate. So while some of COP27 outcomes were not what I had hoped they would be, I choose to temper my realism with optimism and hope, because I know people are more aware than ever of the impacts of climate change and the importance in demanding change. I look forward to another year of seeing businesses held accountable and taking action, governments increasing their focus on the transition to low-carbon economies, and climate innovation continuing to develop.??