The newly appointed UN climate chief is planning a revamp of the annual international summit to ensure it is transparent and delivers results after a controversial conclusion to this year’s COP27 in Egypt.
Speaking hours after the close of the climate conference in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh, Simon Stiell, head of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said he intended to overhaul the COP process to make it “as effective as possible”.
This year’s event ended with some key participants expressing dissatisfaction with the treatment and dealings at the Red Sea resort, which attracted more than 45,000 attendees.
While many vulnerable and developing countries praised the agreement on a fund to help poor countries cope with the consequences of climate change, others criticized the handling of the fortnight of overnight negotiations and disputes that ended with no progress on global warming targets.
Some diplomats questioned the integrity of Egypt’s COP27 presidency. “I’ve never experienced anything like this: no transparency, unpredictable and chaotic,” said one delegate.
Country negotiating teams were given a short period of time in the early hours of Saturday morning to review draft texts on several key issues, people familiar with the matter said. That “was not standard procedure,” said a European Union official.
The drawn-out talks took the summit into a second day of extension, and the final plenary session took place on Sunday the 20th, after 3 am.
Stiell has been on the other side of the COP process as a former minister for climate resilience and the environment for the Caribbean nation of Grenada, prior to his appointment in August to lead the UNFCCC.
He said he was aware of concerns about COP27 and would review the summit and broader COP process upon his return to the UNFCCC secretariat in Bonn, Germany.
“What we’ll do when we go home is review and look for areas for improvement,” he told the FT.
There are elements of the process that “can be improved”, Stiell said, and the UN body intends to provide recommendations for the next UAE presidency ahead of the 2023 conference.
“The process needs to be as streamlined as possible, it needs to be as effective as possible,” he said.
The conclusion of COP27 on Sunday drew mixed reactions, with Tuvalu’s finance minister lamenting the “lost opportunity”. Other western negotiators blamed neighboring oil and gas producing countries such as Saudi Arabia for watering down the final deal.
And the presence of more than 600 fossil fuel industry lobbyists prompted complaints from a group of scientists and climate advocacy groups.
The final hours of the summit were marked by pressure from dozens of countries to include the promise to phase out all fossil fuels, which ended up not being successful.
Addressing the industry’s presence, Stiell said “you can’t ignore them”.
“The question is how do you involve them and where do they fit in the process,” he said. “I believe it is absolutely essential that the process be fully transparent.”
On the lack of transparency at COP27, Stiell said: “I can’t answer that, but it’s something I’ll look into.”
One possible way to improve the process might be to involve future COP presidencies alongside the elected presidency each year, Stiell said. “Can we work together on creating an expanded agenda?”
Despite the disappointment expressed by many at the conclusion of COP27, the head of the UNFCCC said it was not a failure.
“There has been no retreat in a very difficult environment, with the energy crisis, where there has been an increase in the use of fossil fuels,” he said. The absence of setbacks was “remarkable”, but for next year “there is an opportunity for greater performance”.
At the UAE summit next year, a focus on the energy sector “was an obvious starting point,” Stiell said. The science was clear about the need to “transition from fossil fuels”.
I have worked as a journalist for over 10 years, and my work has been featured on many different news websites. I am also an author, and my work has been published in several books. I specialize in opinion writing, and I often write about current events and controversial topics. I am a very well-rounded writer, and I have a lot of experience in different areas of journalism. I am a very hard worker, and I am always willing to put in the extra effort to get the job done.
