Over 100 world leaders who gathered at the inauguration of the Climate Implementation Summit, at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, agreed to work towards the implementation of existing climate agreements.
The leaders were welcomed by Egypt’s President, Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, and the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres.
The summit kicked off with an opening plenary opened by El-Sisi, which featured a range of other prominent speakers from heads of state to climate leaders who delivered messages on the importance of urgent action to address climate change.
Afterwards, there were three roundtable sessions with world leaders to discuss a range of pertinent climate change issues including just transition, food security, and innovative finance for climate and development.
A just transition means ensuring that global and local climate action protects the planet, people and the economy.
Just transition
A just transition for communities as the world’s economy responds to climate change was one of the key elements recognized in the Paris Agreement.
Different regions, countries, as well as different communities are asymmetrically exposed to the physical impacts of climate change and the socioeconomic consequences of mitigation and adaptation policies and the wider transition to a low emissions and climate resilience economic model (on security of water, food, energy, housing, job, as well as health and wellbeing).
Ensuring that communities find secure pathways in these sectoral redeployments and social and economic development goals are achieved are key elements of a successful just transition.
A just transition means ensuring that global and local climate action protects the planet, people and the economy. That is why key principles such as the just transition are central in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process.
Also, responses to climate change should be integrated with sustainable social and economic development, recognizing the specific needs of developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change.
It is vital to ensure a managed and just transition to an economic model based on low-emission and climate-resilient development, based on the agreed principles in the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement.
This transition needs to be managed in a manner which ensures the needed shift to and the quick phasing-in of low-emission technologies and phasing-down of high-emission ones, while ensuring that it meets the needs of all communities impacted.
Food security
The incoming presidency of COP27 identified implementation as the main focus of COP27, aimed at addressing climate related transition and transformation through a holistic approach that takes into consideration different aspects.
This includes the social and economic development dimensions, enablers for a just transition, ambition in action and support to allow for an on time and at scale substantial progress in all aspects of climate change, with ambition on mitigation action as envisaged by science.
Also is a transformative adaptation agenda that responds to the current and future impacts of climate change and appropriate finance and technology transfer to allow for an inclusive and principle based transition with no one left behind.
Climate change impacts, both extreme weather and slow-onset events, have impacted several sectors of the national economies and activities, in particular agriculture and food production, augmented by other challenges be it geopolitical, cost of finance or supply chain related, and in a time of increased food insecurity.
It is important to have deep discussions on ways to deal with the needed increase in agricultural productivity, shift to resilient agriculture, reduce losses in the food production chain including through cooling solutions, and ensure relevant measures are in place for sustained food security and to manage any potential food crisis.
Science has identified the following as impacts of climate change: Loss of rural livelihoods and income; Loss of marine and coastal ecosystems and livelihoods; Loss of terrestrial and inland water ecosystems and livelihoods; food insecurity and breakdown of food systems.
Global food demand continues to grow as the world’s population is expected to hit the 9.6 billion mark by 2050. Meanwhile, 820 million people are suffering from hunger as of 20211, whereas climate change continues to have drastic impacts on agricultural lands and livestock productivity.
IPCC estimates that agricultural land productivity already decreased by 21% compared to a scenario with no climate change, fuelled by high temperatures and extreme rainfalls (damaging for soil health), along with increased levels of CO2 (reducing nutritional quality of crops2).
Additionally, a further 17% reduction in yields of coarse grains, oil seeds, wheat and rice, is expected by 2050 for IPCC’s highest temperature increase scenario.
Livestock production is also severely impacted by climate shocks, which are becoming increasingly frequent: 20-60% losses in animal count were recorded during serious drought events in the past decades.
Besides being vulnerable to the impact of climate change, food systems are also a major contributor to GHG emissions (about one third of global emissions). Hence, it is imperative that food systems evolve to sustainably meet the growing demand globally.
Moreover, the mobilization of the $100billion yearly by 2020 which was pledged in 2009 has not been met, and might not be delivered before 2023.
Innovative finance for climate and development
Current climate finance flows are insufficient and not increasing in the required speed to deliver on the Paris Agreement goals. Total climate finance flows (including domestic and international investments) have grown by 5% from 2013-14 to 2017-18, reaching $862billion.
However, these flows still need to be increased by 200% to 400% from now on to reach $1.6trillion to $3.7trillion per year, which is the amount necessary to transition to a net-zero-emission and resilient economy by 2050, according to UNFCCC Standing Committee on Finance.
As of now, climate finance support for mitigation and adaptation action remains particularly insufficient within developing economies. For instance, even though richer nations agreed to channel $40billion annually in adaptation finance to developing countries by 2025, actual projections estimate that the total of adaptation finance likely to be achieved in 2025 should only be around $22billion.
There are multiple reasons for adaptation being underserved; including a global misjudgement on short-term adaptation’s criticality, low/uncertain returns on capital, institutional capability gaps in receiving countries that hamper the ability to receive funding and a lack of globally accepted vehicles that enable funding flows from developed to developing countries.
Moreover, the mobilization of the $100billion yearly by 2020 which was pledged in 2009 has not been met, and might not be delivered before 2023. Indeed, according to OECD, $83billion was channelled to developing countries in 2024, among which:
- 82% came from public financing (38% bilateral and 44% multilateral), 16% from private investors and the remaining 2% from export credits;
- Most of these flows took the form of public loans (58% of total flows), enhancing developing countries’ debt burdens, whereas only 21% were channelled through grants from bilateral and multilateral development banks;
- These funds have been primarily used to fund climate projects in the field of energy (32% of total finance flows), transport (14%), agriculture, forestry, & fishing (9%) and water supply & sanitation (8%).
However, according to Oxfam, the level of finance flows reported by developed countries is significantly higher than actual climate-specific net assistance. Oxfam notably discounts funds declared which are not actually targeting climate action, and focuses on grant equivalence, to estimate the actual financial transfer to developing countries once all financial repayments are taken into account (like loan repayments, interest, administration expenses, etc).
