COP27: Egyptian Presidency 'removing roadblocks' ahead of climate summit

The Egyptian presidency and host of the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference in November was working with international partners to clear barriers that could prevent progress being made in the fight to cut greenhouse gas emissions, it said Oct. 21.

Members of the Egyptian Presidency and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change held an all-day meeting ahead of the COP27 summit, which will run from Nov. 6-18 in Sharm El-Sheikh.

"Eliminating roadblocks to productive dialogue and eventual agreement were central points discussed," the Egyptian Presidency said in a statement.

"The role of the COP Presidency is to align and converge multiple views, and facilitate transparent, inclusive, and fruitful discussion, while consistently advocating for more progress, ambition and solidarity," said H.E. Sameh Shoukry, Egypt's minister of foreign affairs and COP President Designate.

The meeting included representatives of previous COP Presidencies to discuss ultimate objectives of COP27 and to navigate current geopolitical issues identified as one of the key challenges at this year's negotiations.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has soured international relations and exacerbated an energy supply crisis, diverting attention away from climate ambition among governments in the short term.

Global CO2 emissions from combustion are set to exceed pre-COVID levels in 2023, rising to an estimated 35 billion mt, compared with 34.1 billion mt in 2022 and 34.4 billion mt in 2019, according to a reference case forecast from S&P Global Commodity Insights.

CO2 output has rebounded from a low of 32.4 billion mt in 2020, when many governments were forced to lock down economies to halt the spread of the pandemic.

In a video released Oct. 18, S&P Global set out several key challenges governments will face at COP27.

In particular, efforts to reduce emissions in the industrialized countries are set to be overshadowed by increases in rapidly developing economies, underscoring the difficulty in achieving a global solution to the problem.

"Western Europe and the US only made up a small portion of emissions reductions over the past decade and cannot go it alone on climate," said Dan Klein, Head of Future Energy Pathways at S&P Global.

"Even if emissions in these areas declined to zero, emissions from the rest of the world would still need to fall 65% from current levels by 2050 in order to reach a global two degrees target," Klein said.

Emissions from countries outside the US and Western Europe were only expected to fall 3% between now and 2050.

"The effort to reduce emissions cannot be limited to certain regions, but more geopolitical cooperation looks like a tough ask for COP27," said Klein.

The COP27 presidency has highlighted key objectives of the summit, including an acceleration of global climate action through emissions reduction, scaled up adaptation efforts, and enhanced flows of finance, also recognizing that a "just transition" remains a priority for developing countries worldwide.

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