The five keys left behind by the COP27 climate summit

The COP27 climate summit in Sharm el Sheikh (Egypt) ended in the early hours of this Sunday with the approval of the establishment of a fund to finance losses and damages in developing countries particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. At the last plenary session, the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) endorsed the new financing mechanism for reparations in the states most affected by climate change.

These are the five keys who left the COP27:

1. Loss and Damage: During the negotiations, the financing of losses and damage was central. At the start of COP27, for the first time in the history of a climate summit, the Egyptian presidency put on the agenda how to finance compensation for the most vulnerable countries due to the impacts of climate change by developed countries. historically responsible for emissions. This pillar has been the biggest headache for the parties to the UN treaty. A new fund or making use of existing institutions, ‘mosaics’ of measures, who should contribute and who should benefit from it were the points of discussion.

2. Brazil is back: While the intervention of US President, Joe Biden, raised many expectations, it was that of Brazil’s President-elect, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, that really caused waves. Lula arrived in Sharm el Sheikh, on his first international trip since being elected, to announce to the world that “Brazil is back” in the global fight against climate change. His country, the greatest custodian of the Amazon rainforest, returned after four years of a “disastrous government” that plunged his country into “climate denial,” the Brazilian leader said. One of the calls that made everyone look to the future of these conventions was Lula’s intention to make a proposal to the UN holding COP30, scheduled for 2025, in the Brazilian Amazon.

3. Loss of trust between North and South: Trust between the north and south sides of the world has cracked, something Guterres himself complained about in Sharm el Sheikh. That North and South refer to “developed and emerging economies” as the latter have demanded more action and responsibility from the wealthy to pay for the impacts of climate change. The final argument for the parties to accept the final agreement was aligned in this regard or at least justified by the European Union.

4. Human Rights: Another important issue, more present at the “street” protests than at the negotiating table, was human rights. “No human rights, no climate justice” was repeated almost every day of the summit, with special mention for British-Egyptian pro-democracy activist Alaa Abdelfatah, whose name made headlines during the summit’s first week. COP27 has been heavily criticized for “greenwashing” as it is being held in a country where major international human rights NGOs say tens of thousands of people are behind bars for expressing their political views against the Egyptian government.

5. There Is No Money: But in the end, the background to this summit was an energy crisis caused by the invasion of Ukraine, which has led to a period of inflation and could lead to a recession. Ultimately, money and geopolitics set the climate agenda.