The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) held a webinar at the midway point of the Sharm el-Sheikh Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP 27) where the Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) team shared insights on progress in the talks achieved thus far, and identified possible directions for the second week of the conference, based on the trajectory of negotiations.

Jennifer Allan, ENB team leader, said the goal of the Bulletin is to provide neutral reporting to ensure transparency. Setting the context for the COP 27 talks, she noted that governments were raising the war in Ukraine and associated impacts, including inflation, cost-of-living concerns, and the global energy crisis as challenges for action. She also flagged that negotiators were watching the recent lack of climate cooperation between the US and China.

Allan explained that COP 27’s move from negotiation to implementation is revealing transitional issues that are either technical or principled in nature. She said the idea of “burden sharing” when it comes to “major emitters,” for example, has met with pushback from proponents of the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR). She also highlighted a shift in discussions on the global temperature goal from keeping global warming to “well below” 2°C, aiming for 1.5°C, to “every fraction matters.”

Among the “big things” at COP 27, Allan emphasized loss and damage finance, the continuation of work programmes on the global goal on adaptation and on urgently scaling up mitigation ambition and implementation, and the Global Stocktake (GST) technical dialogue.

Allan said the addition of loss and damage finance to the COP agenda was the result of a “deeply political process” that barred discussions about compensation or liability, also noting differences on whether such finance should be ex post or ex ante. She further flagged it is unclear whether and how talks on loss and damage finance and on a new collective quantified goal on climate finance, both set to conclude in 2024, will interact.

With regard to climate finance more generally, Allan flagged two “sleeper” issues: negotiations on long-term climate finance that were supposed to conclude by 2020; and Paris Agreement Article 2.1(c) (consistency of finance flows), which could see discussions on “bringing in” multilateral development banks (MDBs).

On the global goal on adaptation, Allan indicated that adaptation is a priority for the Egyptian COP Presidency. She said several developing country negotiating groups wish to see a substantive outcome that will help review progress towards the global goal, while developed countries support a series of workshops.

Allan said the Presidency is holding consultations on “cover decisions” that might include references to some of the issues under discussion, as well as linkages with other areas of sustainable development.

Responding to questions and observations from the audience, Allan highlighted, inter alia:

• Loss and damage finance is being discussed as something additional to other climate finance and for developing countries only;
• The recent report from the UN High-level Expert Group on the Net Zero Emissions Commitments of Non-State Entities had some uptake “on the side” of negotiations;
• A lot of the conversation about nature-based solutions is happening in the non-state actor space;
• COP 27 is seeking to operationalize Glasgow decisions on Article 6 (cooperative approaches) and ensure their interoperability; and
• The Global Stocktake will assess collective progress on mitigation, adaptation, finance, capacity building, and technology development and transfer.

In conclusion, Allan said during week two of the talks, ministers will engage on the issues forwarded for their consideration from week one. [SDG Knowledge Hub Sources] [COP 27 Halfway Point Webinar] [ENB Coverage of Sharm el-Sheikh Climate Change Conference]