Towards a 'Community of the Practitioners' and 'Cities as a Service'

Reflections on the upcoming COP, co-authored with Avery Johnstone

Remembering COP26

Many will remember COP26 in Glasgow last November – a mass convening, amid ongoing COVID measures, of policymakers, business leaders, activists, media and artists, all driven by one purpose: accelerating climate action. ‘COP’ stands for Conference of Parties and is convened by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) annually for multilateral negotiations on climate policy adoption and implementation.

Average annual greenhouse gas emissions in the last decade were the highest in human history. The latest IPCC Reports therefore reinforces its messaging that emissions need to be almost halved this decade if we want to stay on track to limit earth’s warming to 1.5°C. This means better implementation of proven measures and technology, but also exploring innovative solutions and enablers to drastically reduce fossil fuels and better governance to implement them. As the IPCC stated when receiving the 2022 Gulbenkian Price: ‘the impacts and risks of climate change are becoming increasingly complex and more difficult to manage. NOW is the time for climate action. There is no more time for half-measures or complacency. There is enough global capital and liquidity to tackle the problem. But financiers need more explicit signalling from governments and the international community. Achieving global low emissions and just transitions depend upon accelerated international financial cooperation. It also depends upon collaboration across different stakeholders. We have the tools and know-how required to limit global warming. It is time to put them to use with far greater urgency.’

At the COP26 negotiations last year, we saw several positive outcomes including the agreement of the Glasgow Climate Pact , the reaffirmation of a pledge which mobilises at least $100bn a year to developing nations to mitigate and adapt to climate change as they are the hardest hit by the effects of climate change, the call for a ‘phasedown’ of unabated coal power and end to ‘inefficient’ fossil fuel subsidies, and much, much more[1] . However, it is worth noting that these are indeed negotiations. Though it was the first time fossil fuels were part of the draft agreement, what was originally on the COP26 agenda as the ‘phase out of coal’ was later negotiated to the weaker ‘phasedown of unabated coal’. In layman’s terms, rather than a complete stop on coal, the overall proportion of coal in total energy will be reduced, a demand driven by a number of developing countries.

Outside the negotiations, we also saw incredible demonstrations of progress from business and civil society alike. Coalitions and alliances like the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net-Zero convened to coordinate efforts across all sectors of the financial system to accelerate the transition to a net-zero global economy[2] , upwards of 100,000 people marched the streets of Glasgow demanding stronger climate action[3] and young people, in particular young women, raised their voices at these negotiations and demanded gender and racial justice as part of a just transition[4] .

In run up to COP26 the UN High Level Champions launched the ‘Race To Zero’, the largest ever alliance committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050. The coalition of +1,000 cities, + 5,000 businesses, +400 big investors cover almost 25% of global CO2 emissions and over 50% GDP.

COP 26 and the Glasgow Climate Pact also marked the role of cities and local government, as a key driver for transformative action towards climate neutrality. The declaration recognises the role of local communities and highlights, the need for multilevel and cooperative action, and the importance of designing urban sustainable finance solutions.

With the momentum to continue towards the Egyptian COP, it is important to offer implementation pathways that deliver the speed and scale needed.

So, as we gear up for COP27 in a few weeks, which will be taking place in Sharm el-Sheik Egypt, one might ask: what is on the agenda this year, how does it work and what is KPMG doing to contribute? ?

Agenda for COP27

Branded as the ‘African COP’, and with a focus on both Adaptation and Mitigation, there is the anticipation that COP27 will address the interconnectedness of other social and economic challenges that both exacerbate climate and other inequalities. Some of these might include peace and security, energy transitions, health and food. There is increasing pressure for wealthier nations to deliver on their promises from COPs past, and deliver the adequate financial support to poorer nations, but also to reduce their own contribution to change itself.

Additionally, loss and damage has been ‘added’ as a fourth pillar to climate action on this year’s agenda, following climate finance, adaptation, and mitigation. Broadly, the concept of loss and damages can be broken down into two categories: rapid-onset impacts (i.e. flooding) and slow-onset impacts (i.e. rising sea levels).

There is an overwhelming sense of need for action in the climate community. COP26 gave the world a great sense of hope, but it is time to deliver on that ambition with action and ensure a ‘wonderful recovery’ as Sir David Attenborough put it. One mechanism for this is expanding the agenda on climate finance, with the Egyptian COP presidency showing a particular focus on financial assistance for developing economies.

Given the focus on the Global South agenda of this COP, and enhanced by the energy crisis, a number of public and private organisations also advocate for picking up on the multi-level governance again, as one of the catalysts for accelerating implementation and exploring new partnership building to address both mitigation, adaptation, and just transition objectives.

COP27 will also see the new Forests and Climate Leaders’ Partnership (FCLP) established—building on that commitment from COP26—with each country expected to commit to leading by example in at least one action area, such as ensuring that forest economies contribute to a net zero world or sustainably managing high integrity forests[5] .

Other business commitments, alliances and updates are yet to be announced, but we do expect to see demonstrated progress from the private sector and for the business community to be held accountable by civil society actors.

COP27 Process

The negotiations themselves often happen behind closed doors, with much of the progress already having been made at the Bonn Intersessional earlier this year. Countries send political leaders, ministers and accredited officials to negotiate on their behalf inside what is called The Blue Zone. Oftentimes, countries will negotiate as part of Blocs or groups of countries with similarities to strengthen their negotiating power. Examples of this are the Alliance of Small Island States, Least Developed Countries Group, African Group, Coalition for Rainforest Nations, among others. Other parties present in The Blue Zone include official observers, who are typically from multilateral or intergovernmental organisations or NGOs, but who do not participate in an official capacity, and the media. In the wider convening, there is also The Green Zone, which hosts civil society, country specific pavilions, art exhibitions and demonstrations. This space is independently curated by specific representatives (i.e. the UK would self-curate their own pavilion according to their key priorities), and is more widely accessible to the public.

Apart from a Blue and Green Zone, COP 27 in Egypt will also host an Innovation Zone, where room will be given to ecosystem building and interactions, with a focus on new ideas and innovative solutions, but also to cross-sector partnerships and climate leadership. ?

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The Urban Agenda at COP

The process and setup of COP venues is important, as it also tells something about how the agenda is set and to what extent implementation pathways are tentatively being shaped. The IPCC reports and many other climate science insights have over the years presented an ever more refined overview of the dire straits we are in and how tipping points relate to one another. Negotiations have taken this into account, but have often also struggled in how to combine a motivated plea by a number of countries for a slower offtake on the short and even medium term while needing to make giant leaps at global level on the long term.

The climate agenda brings the history of the world, mankind, and a myriad of wicked problems with it. We cannot draw an exhaustive list of solutions that with certainty get us back on the 1,5° or 2° C track. With a combined forecasting and backcasting approach, we can however define a number of no regret measures and starting points to embrace complexity. A global agenda, if properly owned, is needed, but if we want to facilitate more large scale implementation, we should loop in local practices that know how to tackle complex challenges with complex solutions that can bridge bottom-up and top-down but also cross-sectoral bottom-linked approaches. Urban environments that the majority of our global population call home, where climate challenges and effects become tangible, where creativity takes shape, policy hits the ground, and public and private actors co-create solutions. Where meaningful connections build new types of ecosystems, and where agenda and generation clashes offer the kind of friction that helps driving iterative approaches and learning journeys. Where windows of opportunity are translated to policy cycles, investment frameworks, or open format societal transitions and multi-stakeholder coalitions. Where an agenda embraces not only agreements, but also checks and balances on how responsibility is shared but also soundly handed over. Where a complex web of relationships shapes the urban social fabric and weaves pockets of the future. Where leaders of tomorrow pick up the responsibility the recentre cities as a service to the common good. The EU Cities Mission and the Mission Innovation Urban Transition Missions , but also a.o. Global Covenant of Mayors, C40, ICLEI, UCLG, Eurocities, United Cities, UN Habitat, UNFCCC and Future Earth initiatives already show the art of the possible. Nationally Determined Contributions can only be achieved when cities are part of the dialogue, when climate talks are not focused on agenda setting, but also create the space to innovate, fail, learn, accelerate and scale and give room to a community of practice and action research, receiving the same respect as their scientific counterparts.

The solutions’ quest to sustainability will be won or lost in cities. Cross-connections beyond and across organisation structures, comfort zones, and check box approaches will drive coalitions of the willing. Different types of innovation, ranging from technology, over policy and finance, to solution innovation will provide new levers, while data, tools, skills and expertise offer minimal enablers to help us reach the speed and scale we need to make the 2050 horizon in a just way, able to address core human needs next to global goals. COP should therefore as much be as much a Community of the Practitioners as much as a Conference of the Parties. I therefore hope to have - at some point - other than national voices around the table. Also local, private, and unheard ones.

[1] Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit | COP27: A visual guide (eciu.net)

[2] About Us | Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (gfanzero.com)

[3] COP26: Thousands march for Glasgow's biggest protest - BBC News

[4] Young women push for greater representation in the climate debate | Financial Times (ft.com)

[5] COP27: What can we expect from this year’s climate change conference? | The BMJ