Regional and international COP27 climate deals offer hope - but hope without drastic and immediate action will be futile

As COP27 - UN Climate Change Conference wrapped up in Egypt on Sunday, the global community went their separate ways, bound by one clear fact. The next 12 months will be absolutely pivotal for the future of our planet. It is the one window of opportunity to reduce carbon emissions that we absolutely cannot miss. We must go over to drastic, urgent action, failing which the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns that global warming will increase by a catastrophic 3.2°C.?

There simply is no alternative to the energy transition in 2023 – no war, energy crunch, political event, or inflation crisis can change the climate reality we are all facing. We need to act together now for a just, ambitious, and accelerated implementation of the energy transition.?It’s with this grave sense of urgency that a few very important regional and international agreements came to light in the past week to significantly slash carbon emissions in the coming year. These actions are born out of the knowledge of what needs to be done to achieve real climate relief in the near future.?

COP27 closed with one important agreement – to expand the fund for loss and damages, for poorer countries affected by climate change. This landmark deal serves as an acknowledgement that richer countries have an obligation to pay for the costs of climate change. But paying the costs of climate change should be a last resort. Keeping within the 1.5c target is slipping away. We need to focus on mitigation, rather than adaption or even losses and damages. We must now look ahead to COP28 in Dubai, which is a key moment to take stock on progress since COP21. It must also serve as a watershed moment, for us to focus on the key areas to halt climate change – to set a target on peak emissions before 2025, to have consensus on a phase out of coal, and to set a target for phasing out fossil fuels.

Realization 1: We must tackle outsized industrial pollution to bring down global temperatures

The industrial sector is responsible for more than 30% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, and nearly 40% of global energy consumption, making it the second largest carbon emitter after the power generation industry. The only way forward is for the industry to find ways to drastically reduce its emissions through effective mitigation strategies. We must focus on carbon capture and mitigation solutions because the demand for energy and industrial products certainly won’t decrease - in fact, it is forecasted to increase tremendously in the next few years.?

With less than a decade left to secure a fighting chance for a 1.5°C world, the Alliance for Industry Decarbonization was launched in September and held its first executive roundtable with 23+ CEOs of industrial companies at COP27. The International Renewable Energy Agency ( International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) ), 西门子能源 and thirteen companies across all industry sectors, both public and private, launched the Alliance by adopting the Bali Declaration. By the end of the conference, as pressure mounted, more than 25 major global organisations had become members and the member list is growing by the day. Our hope is that all global industrial giants will join us before the end of 2022 so that we can take critical action together by 2023.?

The aim is to decarbonize industrial value chains and accelerate net-zero ambitions in accordance with the Paris Agreement. It’s a three-pronged strategy of technology partnerships, industry partnerships and knowledge partnerships. The technology side entails renewables, bioenergy with carbon capture, utilization and storage (BCCUS), and green hydrogen. On the knowledge and processes side, the focus is on heat process optimization and integration, and on the industry cooperation level, we are driving finance and human capital cooperation.?

Realization 2: We need more strategic country partnerships right now

As emerging economies continued to push for greater and more urgent support from the Global North for a just and equitable energy transition, it’s positive to see that Germany announced two new funds, the PtX Development and PtX Growth funds, to the total value of 550 million euros to support the development of the global hydrogen economy, in cooperation with developing countries. While this is a generous investment, it is still significantly short of what the developing world needs - in fact, it’s about 0.03% of the $1.6 trillion per year that Africa needs in climate financing in this decade for each country to meet its Paris commitments. Other wealthy countries much come to the party too.?

Meanwhile, in the Middle East, Project Prosperity, the clean energy and desalination deal signed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Jordan and Israel at COP27, emerged as an incredibly important practical step forward for the region in terms of its collective energy transition. Made up of two components, Prosperity Green involves a 600-megawatt solar photovoltaic plant for electricity generation and storage, and Prosperity Blue involves sustainable water desalination to produce potable water.

Jordan also signed a memorandum of understanding with Masdar, a leading renewable energy company, to explore collaboration in renewable energy projects with a total capacity of up to 2GW. The deal entails the exchange of expertise and knowledge in renewable energy and infrastructure development, including electricity transformation, distribution, and exportation.

?Conclusion

?Egypt is strategically located at the crossroads between Europe, Africa and the Middle East, making COP27 a critical moment to bring the world together.?

However, I would argue that the next COP conference in Dubai next year will be even more crucial because it comes at the end of what needs to be a pivotal year for global decarbonization. It will be our opportunity to take real stock of our collective climate progress through important initiatives since the Paris Agreement, such as those mentioned in this article. We saw some positive signs, but the proof will be in the pudding?- this being the nationally determined contributions (NDC) announcements, and more regional announcements, to accelerate the transition.?

The trouble is that all of these actions combined are still not enough. Much, much more needs to happen in the next year for us to avoid catastrophic global warming in our future. If we reach COP28 without any real and substantial collective global decarbonization progress, we will be in deep trouble. Irreversible tipping points will be our collective destiny. Many more of us must come together between now and the next COP28 to tackle climate change. We must act now. Immediate climate action is the most important thing we can do for ourselves, our children, and humanity. There is not a single moment to waste.?