Implementation of Paris Agreement is key agenda of COP27: UNFCCC

Sharm el-Sheikh: The world’s largest, UNFCCC Climate conference COP27, has begun with the key aim of ensuring “full implementation of Paris Agreement” in the coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

In a statement, the UNFCCC said that “COP27 is also taking place against the backdrop of inadequate ambition to curb greenhouse gas emissions”.

According to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, CO2 emissions need to be cut by 45 percent by 2030, compared to 2010 levels to meet the central Paris Agreement goal of limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of this century.

“This is crucial to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, including more frequent and severe droughts, heatwaves and rainfall,” it said.

Speaking at the event on an opening day, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell said, “With the Paris Rulebook essentially concluded thanks to COP26 in Glasgow last year, the litmus test of this and every future COP is how far deliberations are accompanied by action”.

“Everybody, every single day, everywhere in the world, needs to do everything they possibly can to avert the climate crisis,” said “COP27 sets out a new direction for a new era of implementation: where outcomes from the formal and informal process truly begin to come together to drive greater climate progress — and accountability for that progress,” Mr. Stiell added.

A report published by UN Climate Change ahead of COP27 shows that whilst countries are bending the curve of global greenhouse gas emissions downward, efforts remain insufficient to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.

Since COP26 in Glasgow, only 29 out of 194 countries came forward with tightened national plans. The UN Climate Change Executive Secretary also asked governments to focus on three critical areas at COP27.

The first is a transformational shift to the implementation of the Paris Agreement and putting negotiations into concrete actions.

The second is cementing progress on the critical workstreams of mitigation, adaptation, finance, and loss and damage while stepping up finance notably to tackle the impacts of climate change.

The third is enhancing the delivery of the principles of transparency and accountability throughout the UN Climate Change process.

The Egyptian COP27 Presidency has set out an ambitious vision for this COP that puts human needs at the heart of our global efforts to address climate change.

COP27 creates a unique opportunity in 2022 for the world to unite, to make multilateralism work by restoring trust and coming together at the highest levels to increase our ambition and action in fighting climate change.

“COP27 must be remembered as the ‘Implementation COP’ – the one where we restore the grand bargain that is at the center of the Paris Agreement,” it said.