By S. Sultan

On Monday, 14 Nov, 2022 a statement issued by Germany listed Bangladesh, Costa Rica, Fiji, Ghana, Pakistan, the Philippines and Senegal as some of the initial recipients of Global Shield packages. Those packages would be developed in the coming months. Pakistan to be among the first to get G7 climate funding with Ghana and Bangladesh will be among the first recipients of funding from a G7 ‘Global Shield’ initiative to provide funding to countries suffering climate disasters, the program announced on Monday at the COP27 summit in Egypt.

The Global Shield, coordinated by G7 president Germany, purposes to deliver fast access for climate-vulnerable countries to insurance and disaster protection funding after floods or dearth. It is being developed in collaboration with the ‘V20’ group of 58 climate susceptible economies.

On 6 November 2022, the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP27 opened with the key aim of ensuring full implementation of the Paris Agreement at sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Discussions at COP27 begin near the end of a year that has seen devastating floods and unprecedented heat waves, severe droughts and formidable storms, all unequivocal signs of the unfolding climate emergency.

At the same time, millions of people throughout the world are facing the impacts of simultaneous crises in energy, food, water and cost of living, intensified by severe geopolitical conflicts and strains. In this hostile context, some countries have begun to stall or reverse climate policies and doubled down on fossil fuel use.

COP27 held against the backdrop of insufficient ambition to control greenhouse gas emissions. According to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, CO2 emissions need to be cut 45% 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, heat waves and rainfall.

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 inadequate to restrict 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.

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 discussions are followed by action. Everybody everywhere in the world, needs to do everything they possibly can to avert the climate crisis.  Climate Change conference COP27 sets out a new direction for a new era of implementation: where results from the formal and informal process truly begin to come together to drive greater climate progress.

In his opening address, the UN Climate Change Executive Secretary asked governments to focus on three critical areas at COP27. The first is a transformational shift to implementation of the Paris Agreement and putting negotiations into concrete actions. The second is cementing progress on the critical work streams 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. The Presidency intends to focus the world’s attention on key elements that address some of the most fundamental needs of people everywhere, including water security, food security, and health and energy security.

As the leaders around the globe gathered this year at a time when global climate action is at a watershed moment. Multilateralism is being challenged by geopolitics, spiraling prices, and growing financial crises, while several countries battered by the pandemic have barely recovered, and severe and depleting climate change-induced disasters are becoming more frequent.

COP27 created 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. On Sunday, 6 November following a procedural opening, to enable work to begin quickly, Monday and Tuesday will be the World Leaders Summit with the presence of Royalty and more than 100 Heads of State or Government.

The World Leaders Summit provided all Heads of State or Government with the opportunity to set the stage for COP27. A number of key Ministerial and other events around current climate change efforts took place during the COP. These included a first ministerial round table and continued discussions on the global stock took a process for countries and stakeholders to see where they’re collectively making progress towards meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement. These discussions got underway at the Bonn Climate Change Conference in June 2022 and has been picked up where they left off at COP27.

Together, all events provide Ministers and participants with a space to have a frank and open discussions on progress made to date. A High-Level Segment mostly attended by Ministers took place in the second week of the COP, from 15-18 November. Climate Action undertaken by a diversity of stakeholders working to support the implementation of the Paris Agreement will be showcased throughout COP27. The COP27 Presidency will host a series of events in thematic days from 9-17 November which will highlight practical solutions to the challenge of climate change and explore approaches to immediately scale up the implementation of these solutions in key sectors with all stakeholders.

These events focused on the overarching theme of turning climate pledges into climate action in pursuit of net-zero emissions, enhanced resilience for the most vulnerable, and aligning financial flows with these goals. In addition, UNFCCC supported sectorial initiatives in sectors such as sports, fashion, tourism, events and aviation and will announce higher ambition and increased collaboration to align these sectors with the 1.5 degree Celsius target of the Paris Agreement. In this regard, Global Shield, coordinated by G7 president Germany, purpose to fund Pakistan and Bangladesh will have a great positive effect on South Asia.