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03/11/22

Swap climate short-sightedness for long-term vision at COP27

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A eucalyptus plant taking root on sand dunes near Lompoul in Senegal where attempts are being made to prevent the desert from engulfing fertile land. Copyright: John Isaac/UN Photo, (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

By: Fiona Broom

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While climate chaos gallops ahead, action to address the root causes and effects has stalled, United Nations chief Antonio Guterres warned world leaders ahead of COP27, the 2022 global climate summit.

At last year’s COP26, small island nations said that two degrees of warming would be a “death sentence” for their countries. Ahead of COP27, the UN estimated that current emissions reductions pledges would mean global temperature rises would likely reach between 2.4 and 2.6 degrees above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century.

Guterres has told the world’s wealthiest economies that they are “shutting the door” on limiting these temperature rises.

While climate science is in the global spotlight like never before, political leaders have a short-sighted fixation on the immediate crises facing the world: the COVID-19 pandemic, conflict in Europe, rising fossil fuel energy prices, and a growing wave of hunger and malnutrition. This tendency – driven by economic interests – to delay critical climate decisions needs to be replaced with longer term vision and immediate action.

In this Spotlight, we examine the climate issues that are most important to communities in the global South, where the impacts of climate change are hitting hardest.

Our facts and figures article lays out the highs and lows in the climate data and finance, and highlights where ambition needs to be ramped up.

We examine why advocates say compensation for irreversible climate impacts – known as loss and damage – should lead negotiations at this year’s climate summit.

While adaptation support is critical to all communities, but particularly agricultural regions, developing country alliance leaders say they have coubts over wealthy countries’ climate intentions.

The representation of women and young people in climate change negotiations has been in the spotlight for decades, but gender and youth are still largely overlooked by policymakers in the global South, a science policy and Africa leadership developer tells SciDev.Net.

And, we find out why successful climate negotiations at COP27 could pave the way to the Mediterranean becoming a sea of peace.

This article is part of our Spotlight on ‘Africa’s crisis COP’

This article was produced by SciDev.Net’s Global desk.