Cairo: The COP27 global climate summit, which begins on Sunday, will be dominated by global geopolitics and calls on rich countries to take leadership roles and developing countries to provide funding to tackle climate change, according to analysts. Will be done.
While the financial health of wealthy countries has deteriorated as a result of the conflict in Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic, negotiators will increase the pressure on them to make up for their mistakes and deliver the financing they promised more than ten years ago.
While the focus should be on addressing climate change, Wai-Shin Chan, global head of ESG research at HSBC, said in a report that "COP27 will show whether the geopolitical events of 2022, such as the Russia-Ukraine war, energy prices, and deterred food prices, distracted governments, businesses and the general public from taking sustained climate action in the near term."
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Despite the fact that some major decisions are expected, investors and businesses will be looking for signs of the pace of climate action.
The 27th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP27, begins on Sunday in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh and focuses on the theme of "climate implementation". More than 40,000 attendees are expected to attend the 13-day event, including around 100 heads of state and government.
The focus of this year's talks will be on adaptation finance, even though reductions in greenhouse gas emissions remain important. According to Chan, host country Egypt will represent Africa in a funding request to increase the resilience of developing countries and compensate for the damage caused by extreme weather events.
Since August, when US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan and angered Beijing, discussions between China and the US on issues such as methane emissions have been stalled.
John Kerry, the US special envoy for climate change, revealed last week that he had sent a message to his Chinese counterpart Zi Zhenhua in an effort to restart talks.
More than any policy concerns, politics will be Beijing's top concern at COP27, particularly how it interacts with powerful countries such as the US and the European Union, according to Li Shuo, senior climate and energy policy officer at Greenpeace East Asia.
According to Lee, COP27 could either be a turning point that would separate geopolitics from climate action, or it could be a path toward further disengagement.
Only transition, food security, funding climate action, developing clean energy, water security, and sustainability of vulnerable communities are the six main themes that will be covered in COP27.
Inclusion is a key component of a proper transition while navigating new social risks and opportunities, according to Mark de Silva, senior environmental, social and governance (ESG) engagement analyst at HSBC Asset Management, who spoke at an ESG conference hosted by Sustainable on Tuesday. Had it. Fitch.
He pointed out that, for example, the International Energy Agency estimates that by 2030, 14 million new jobs will be added in the clean energy sector, while 5 million will be lost in the fossil fuel sector.
According to him, the transition will not be fair or limited to any particular region or geography. "Companies and regulators will need to consider how we can best address the required skill sets," the statement said.
In a report released on Thursday, the United Nations Environment Program warned that global efforts in adaptation planning, financing and implementation are not commensurate with the increasing risks.
According to UNEP, emerging economies will need US$160 billion to US$340 billion per year by 2030 for things like agriculture, water supply, flood mitigation and ecosystems. By 2050, the annual funding requirement has increased from $315 billion to $565 billion.
In 2020, such funding was provided only for an amount of US$28.6 billion. Developed countries last year decided to increase this to $ 40 billion by 2025.
Total climate finance flows from developed countries to developing countries totaled US$83.2 billion in 2020, significantly lower than US$100 billion in 2009. This figure includes funding for greenhouse gas reduction projects.
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According to Neneka Chike-Obi, Asia-Pacific Head of ESG Research at Sustainable Fitch, greater awareness of the impacts of climate change could increase the contribution.
"The climate disasters that occurred this year made it more concrete for people to understand that climate change is not something intangible, something that will happen in 2050, but is happening across industries and societies right now," the author said.