Author: Selena Kay Galeos

Dealing with climate change is a complex, global issue. It is undeniable that we have to drastically reduce our emissions in order to limit global warming to 1.5°C, but how we actually get there is far from simple. More than just the environment, climate change intertwines with social, economic, and technological factors. Every community, industry, and country must therefore collectively work together in order to achieve our one true target. In addition, we also have to deal with the consequences that are already happening now. Thus, the first step to dealing with climate change is recognizing that there are a lot of moving parts, and there is no magic solution that will fix all of the problems. We need to balance the interests of the people so that the costs and benefits are distributed evenly, and more importantly, ensure that no one gets left behind.

COP 27 made a breakthrough by announcing the agreement on the establishment of the first-ever Loss and Damage fund. Considering loss and damage has been a subject of conversation for several decades now, actually making progress is a huge deal. This doesn’t mean that the process that lies ahead will be any less gruesome. Dhruv Jhaveri, our student mentor for the UNFCCC class, pointed out that you cannot critique the process when you don’t know how it works in the place. We cannot ignore how difficult it is to set aside the conflicting interests of more than 190 nations to prioritize, let alone agree on, a singular issue. With that, I consider this a win.

We demand solutions from global leaders, but we often forget that we too can be part of the solution. My experience in COP 27 has made me realize that the negotiations isn’t the only place where we can make progress happen. The pavilions feature side events highlighting the progress of countries, organizations, industries, and people with their initiatives to push forward a greener world. Having the opportunity to attend these events myself and network with industry leaders, I am cognizant of the structural change that is actualizing right in this venue here. Despite several comments on how COP has evolved into a tradeshow, and how companies have been using COP as a platform to “greenwash,” I feel hopeful. Isn’t doing something, whatever the intention behind it, better than doing nothing at all? As a pragmatist, I believe that actions are more impactful than blind commitments.

The subject of the article aside, I do appreciate the noise. In order to raise climate awareness and ambition, we need to be loud in advocating aggressive actions and put pressure on companies and governments to prioritize the environment. But equally as important, we have to engage in insightful conversations and take action ourselves. Think about what we can learn from this. How can we do better? For some nations, energy access and poverty reduction have been understandably prioritized over environmental policies. For others, adapting to climate change is more time-pressing than mitigating actions. Needless to say, there is no cookie-cutter solution. Dealing with climate change just isn’t black and white. We need to develop our understanding of the complex and conflicting issues surrounding climate justice and come up with solutions that take every life into account.

Excited. Overwhelmed. Anxious. 

My first week at COP took me through a whirlwind of emotions. There were so many events happening simultaneously that there was this constant fear of missing out, so I did my best to fill up my schedule to the very brim. I would run to event after event, getting lost in the maze that is the blue zone, while eating my energy bar in one hand and drinking my coffee in the other. I was mostly tracking developments on loss and damage and just transition – two very different thematic areas circumscribed by the single most controversial question in this year’s conference, who pays for climate change?

Loss and Damage: the damage has been done, so what now?

COP 27 kicked off with a joint press encounter by the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, and the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres. Pakistan incurred unimaginable losses and damages, estimated to be around 30 billion USD, following the unprecedented flooding earlier this year. Despite contributing only less than 1% of global emissions, the nation is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. In Guterres’s speech, the UN Secretary-General highlighted the need for loss and damage to be formally acknowledged and institutionalized in this year’s COP.

“But more needs to be done. The Prime Minister has said, if there is any doubt about loss and damage go to Pakistan. There is loss and there is damage. And this COP needs to recognize it and needs to define a clear roadmap to deal with it. This should include the creation of an institutional framework and financing in order to address the problems of loss and damage. I hope that Pakistan will be able to benefit from these developments.

Pakistan deserves loss and damage to be considered as a reality and for that reality to be recognized through financial mechanisms that I hope this conference will be able to decide.”

In the first high-level ministerial dialogue on the new collective quantified goal on climate finance, 50 ministers and high-level representatives from intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations discussed the need for a clear and transparent signal on setting a new climate finance goal that would adequately reflect the needs and priorities of developing countries, consistent with achieving the objectives set forth in the Paris Agreement. South Africa stressed that the current 100-billion USD goal is insufficient, and we would need a post-2025 goal of at least US$ 1.3 trillion per year. Moreover, determining a timeframe for that goal should be the starting point. In another high-level event on the climate finance needs of developing countries, speakers from Georgia, Saint Lucia, and the Republic of Maldives spoke about the need to strengthen climate finance mobilization and access. Developing and small island nations require greater support from developed countries to address inherent climate challenges and vulnerabilities to shocks.

From Left to Right: H.E. Ms. Minister Nino Tandilashvili, Georgia, Hon. Minister Shawn Edward, Saint Lucia, and H.E. Ms. Aminath Shauna, Republic of Maldives

Sherry Rehman, Minister of Climate Change of Pakistan, repeatedly advocated for the “common but differentiated responsibility” between developed and developing countries, and how major polluters should be responsible for the resulting loss and damages experienced by climate-vulnerable countries, mostly in the Global South. At the panel discussion on ‘The Broken Bargain between the North and the South,’ she was joined by Professor Saleemul Huq, Director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD), Aisha Khan, Executive Director for Civil Society Coalition for Climate Change, and Harjeet Singh, Head Global Political Strategy for Climate Action Network International to talk about the need for the Global North to deliver and account for the historical injustices and the secondary and intergenerational impact of climate losses. The failure of developed and big polluting countries to provide the appropriate finance is putting a heavier burden on the poor people of the countries bearing the brunt of climate change impacts.

“Loss and damage is about human rights, social justice, economic justice, reversin the harms of colonization, and so much more.” – Harjeet Singh

Another major thematic area in this year’s COP isn’t found in the negotiations, although this has been referenced multiple times in the discussion of climate finance and the need to catalyze private sector investments.

Spotlight on Just Transition: opportunities, lessons learned, and recommendations

“Leave no one behind,” the Paris Agreement highlights the need to take into account the imperatives of just transition of the workforce in accordance with nationally defined development priorities. Holding the conference in the continent of Africa provides a unique platform to support and exchange dialogue in the just energy transition, considering South Africa in COP 26 announced the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) with Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union to phase out coal. The just energy transition has been gaining momentum among countries worldwide, especially in the Global South, as a pathway to effectively divest fossil fuel assets, reinvest in clean energy, and reach net-zero targets. The main pillars of a just energy transition are energy access, technology, and finance.

Approaching the Managed Phaseout of Coal Power Generation in Asia Pacific in Singapore Pavilion

Indonesia has recently expressed its plans for an Energy Transition to achieve net zero by 2060, which will formally be announced during the G20 Summit in Bali. To achieve this, an investment of 1.108 trillion USD is needed for power plant and transmission upgrades. Some of the challenges they’ve brought up include technological and infrastructural capacity, balancing supply and demand, integrating social dynamics, and limited funding. Several events have also shed light on the challenges in financing a just energy transition. Mitigating investment risks through guarantees has been identified as key to mobilizing private capital and reducing the cost of green borrowing. Moreover, multilateral development banks are considered the most effective intermediaries in operationalizing the energy transition.

On 10 November 2022, the Sharm El-Sheikh Guidebook for Just Financing was officially released. The Guidebook, a presidential initiative launched by the Egyptian state, provides actionable steps to address the issues of justice and equity in public, private, and philanthropic climate financing. The Guidebook further aims to translate commitments into implementable projects and provide universal access to information, specifically targeted to countries who need financing the most, on how to leverage and catalyze finance and investments. The Sharm El-Sheikh Guidebook for Just Financing can be found here.

But wait – more can still be done

As Week 2 of COP27 kicks in, we hope to establish more ambitious climate actions and commitments from world leaders. Likewise, we too should seek to raise our personal ambition for ourselves, our nations, and our planet, and work all the more harder to achieve them.

It’s four o’clock in the morning and the hallways are empty at the Cairo International Airport. We had just endured a 10-hour flight, after a 40-hour delay from the original schedule, and now waiting another few more hours for our connecting flight to Sharm El-Sheikh, the official venue of COP27. Even so, I can’t help but feel grateful that I’m actually here – about to attend my very first, and hopefully not the last, Conference of Parties also known as COP.

Despite not being able to access any clothes in our checked-in luggage, one upside of having your flight cancelled, or exceptionally delayed, is you get to be stuck in a hotel full of people who are in the same boat (or, should I say, airplane) as you. Even before the actual conference started, I had already met so many inspiring people, also on their way to COP, who each have their own unique advocacy that they’ve gotten off the ground and wish to take to greater heights. I am constantly amazed hearing about their work in the climate arena, which spans from forestry to women and youth empowerment to journalism.

Still, it’s easy to feel small in a roomful of accomplished people, especially for an ordinary person like me who just wants to see the world change for the better (like most of us do) and even more so in a conference attended by thousands of global climate leaders. But maybe that is the point. We’re all after the same goal. Obviously, holding a seat in the high-stakes negotiations at COP has the power to deliver more impactful results, but direct participation during the negotiations isn’t the only way to influence the outcome of COP. Advancing conversations and enabling thought-provoking questions with people who are doing the groundwork could make all the difference.

Going into COP, I am entering with an open and curious mind. I am acknowledging that I still do not know the full picture, and maybe my experiences too will help piece the puzzle together of equitably solving climate change. Personally, I’m interested to learn about real-world experiences and proposed methods in the just energy transition. I specifically want to explore how we can better mobilize finance at the institutional level and how we can innovatively package investments for each country. While there is no “perfect” solution, especially for a nuanced concept such as financing coal transition mechanisms, policymakers must acknowledge the existence of localized issues that could only be properly addressed through authentic collaboration and dialogue. For the leaders of the nations, I hope to see resounding agreements on aggressive climate actions, especially considering the recent events on climate-related disasters. My hope for COP27 is the creation of a financing facility, independent from the mitigation and adaptation fund, to compensate for the loss and damage borne by climate-vulnerable countries. That said, in COP27, I will also be tracking the progress of the 100-bn USD pledged climate finance, including its allocation and proposed future targets.