COP27: Negotiators begin work on draft cover text as Week 1 ends

Negotiators and ministers from 194 parties will on Saturday begin negotiating on the draft cover text as the first week of events and announcements come to a close at the COP27 UN climate summit at Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt.

Negotiators had already started discussing issues that will be the presented in the COP27 resolution at the end of next week.

“Cover decision negotiations will begin tomorrow. It’s still a very long way to go to see what finds space there,” said a negotiator from one of the South American countries on Friday.

“Developed countries are likely to push for text on fossil fuel subsidies, coal phase down, methane pledges and other items from the Glasgow Pact such as keeping the 1.5-degree Celsius goal alive,” said an independent observer who did not wish to be named.

“Developing countries will push for equity and common but differentiated responsibilities to be highlighted in mitigation measures. Another red line may be the push to expand donor base for climate and adaptation finance,” the observer added.

There is a subtle push from developed countries to include China and India in the donor base for the new finance target, New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG), for 2025 onwards, which will start at $100 billion per year. There is also a push, observers said, to increase the donor base for the Adaptation Fund, which is supposed to help developing countries adapt to the effects of climate change.

Over 300 phrases in the draft section on the mitigation work programme – which talks about urgently scaling up action to meet Paris Agreement goals – are currently bracketed, which essentially means that they are not agreed upon. There are even brackets around what should be discussed, including around reaffirming “the goal, as set out in the Paris Agreement, of holding the global average temperature increase to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels”.

The text is also bracketed around “[Recognizing] the need for a fair and equitable distribution of the remaining carbon budget in line with the principle of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities” and “Fair and equitable distribution of the remaining carbon budget … including significant net-negative emissions by developed countries before 2030 and onward”. Another interesting phrase in brackets is “Establishment of an international tribunal on climate justice as a framework under which developed countries’ voluntary commitments are fulfilled” and “Carbon colonialism”.

The draft cover text also says urgent action across all sectors is needed on 1.5 degree Celsius goal and that current policies and measures are insufficient for achieving the goal, adding that the window of opportunity for achieving climate resilient development is closing. These are not bracketed.

“Some pretty punchy draft text here on 1.5C & need for ‘urgent action across all sectors & covering all GHGs’ – and it isn’t bracketed,” said Simon Evans, deputy editor, Carbon Brief, in a post on Twitter.

A number of important issues will be left out to make space in the final document, including a funding facility for loss and damage; scaling up action on adaptation of climate impacts; climate financing, specifically the new, collective, quantified goal for post-2025 period; and, possibly, a decision on safeguarding carbon offset markets, observers said.

During the first week, among major developments, the US made some big commitments. It launched on Wednesday a carbon market scheme, wherein companies can deploy capital to clean energy projects in developing countries, and then use the carbon credits generated from those projects to meet their own climate goals. President Joe Biden on Friday announced that the US will double this multi-year pledge to $100 million, while the country’s Environmental Protection Agency announced on Wednesday that it will strengthen the agency’s standards for methane and other harmful air pollutants from the oil and gas industry.

Additionally, this year’s COP27 president Egypt on Tuesday launched the Sharm El Sheikh Adaptation Agenda, which outlines 30 Adaptation Outcomes to enhance resilience of four billion people living in the most climate vulnerable communities by 2030.

Among other notable developments, UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres on Wednesday said there will be zero tolerance for ”net-zero greenwashing” by companies, financial institutions, cities, regions and other non-state actors on climate change mitigation. His comments followed a report by a High-Level Expert Group on Net Zero Emissions Commitments of Non-State Entities roadmap to prevent net zero goals from being undermined by false claims, ambiguity and “greenwashing”.

On Thursday, the Global Carbon Budget 2022 stated that if current emission levels persist, there is a 50% chance that warming of 1.5 degree Celsius over pre-industrial levels will be exceeded in the next nine years, and warming of 2 degree Celsius will be exceeded in the next 30 years.

To keep global warming under 1.5 degree Celsius or net zero CO2 emissions globally by 2050, CO2 emissions need to fall by 1.4 GtCO2 each year, comparable to the recorded fall in emissions in 2020 due to Covid 19 lockdowns, the report said.