COP27 Dispatch - November 8, 2022

View this newsletter online Subscribe Review EESI Welcome! Today is day two of the World Leaders Summit at COP27. The conference is in full swing in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, with dozens of negotiating sessions happening, pavilions buzzing with activity, and the opening of the U.S. Center (more on that in U.S. Updates).   Starting today, we are compiling key COP27 announcements and reports during the conference. If you are in Egypt, catch up with EESI's Executive Director Daniel Bresette and Policy Manager Anna McGinn! To connect, come visit us at Booth 14 in Area B or email Anna at [email protected]. Missed yesterday’s issue? Check it out here! Also, be sure to find EESI's glossary of terms and other helpful guides in the Resources section!

The U.S. Center opened with sessions focused on implementing climate initiatives to meet Paris Agreement goals. (U.S. Updates) Several new global initiatives were announced, including the Memorandum of Understanding for Forest Partnerships, the South Africa Just Energy Transition Partnership Investment Plan, Climate Prosperity Plans, and the Global Offshore Wind Alliance. (Around the World) Two new reports found that the world is not on track to reach the Paris Agreement goals and climate ambition must be increased. (Other News) Sections     U.S. Updates   |   Around the World   |   Other News   |   Resources   U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry speaks at the U.S. Center. Source: @ClimateEnvoy Twitter Feed U.S. Center: U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry provided keynote remarks at the opening of the U.S. Center, kicking off today's events designed to promote the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to meeting U.S. Paris Agreement goals. Notably, Kerry framed the Inflation Reduction Act as critical to fighting climate change and reiterated U.S. interest in engaging in discussions about loss and damage. Other speakers included Senior Advisor to the President for Clean Energy Innovation and Implementation John Podesta and U.N. Special Envoy for Climate Ambition and Solutions Michael Bloomberg. ► EESI Article: “What the Inflation Reduction Act Means for U.S. Engagement at the U.N. Climate Talks” Nature-based solutions and biodiversity: Monica Medina, the newly-named U.S. special envoy for biodiversity and water resources, and Brenda Mallory, chair of the Council on Environmental Quality, announced the White House’s new Roadmap for Nature-Based Solutions to Fight Climate Change, Strengthen Communities, and Support Local Economies. Mallory explained that the roadmap is designed to help the U.S. government identify and address policy hurdles, coordinate funding across agencies, and build a workforce to support implementation of nature-based solutions. ► EESI Issue Brief: Nature as Resilient Infrastructure–An Overview of Nature-Based Solutions Implementing climate initiatives: Speakers at the U.S. Center discussed how to implement key climate initiatives. For example, speakers reported on the Global Methane Pledge launched at COP26. Mechanisms under that pledge are now helping countries create methane action plans, obtain financial support through the Global Methane Hub, and monitor methane leaks through the International Methane Emissions Observatory. Panelists also discussed the Green Shipping Challenge, President Biden’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience, and the First Movers Coalition. ► EESI Article: “Addressing Methane Emissions Is Critical for Fighting Climate Change” First Movers Coalition: The First Movers Coalition, launched at COP26, is a U.S.-led network of companies using their purchasing power to decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors. Today, they expanded into the carbon-intensive cement and concrete industry, and member companies have committed to purchasing at least 10% low-emission concrete and cement per year by 2030. Next year, the First Movers Coalition will explore expanding into the shipping, electric vehicle charging, and finance sectors. ► EESI Article: “Looking to COP27, Here’s Where Three Key COP26 Announcements Stand” Achieving U.S. emission reduction goals: America Is All In released a report called An All-In Pathway to 2030: The Beyond 50 Scenario showing that action from states, cities, and businesses, combined with federal leadership, can enable the U.S. to reach its goal of reducing emissions by 50-52% by 2030.   Reducing emissions from agriculture: American Farmland Trust released an updated tool and a series of state-specific briefs “to help states estimate greenhouse gas emission reduction opportunities from the implementation of climate-smart cropland and grazing land management practices.” The state-specific briefs look at opportunities for climate-smart agriculture in Illinois, Michigan, New Hampshire, Oregon, and Virginia. ► EESI Article Series: Agriculture and Climate     Botswana President Mokgweetsi Eric Masisi speaking at the World Leaders Summit. Credit: UNFCCC National statements: More heads of state gave statements as the World Leaders Summit wrapped up. Some of the new country-level commitments are highlighted below. See yesterday’s issue for additional commitments and statements. Austria | President Alexander van der Bellen stated that Austria will allocate an additional €220 million (about $221.7 million) to international climate finance over the next three years. Austria also announced that it would provide $50 million for climate change loss and damage. Botswana | President Mokgweetsi Eric Masisi pledged to increase renewable energy from 2% to 30% of its total energy mix by 2030, doubling the country’s NDC targets. Mongolia | President Khurelsukh Ukhnaa raised its target to reduce emissions by 27.2% by 2030 and plans to increase its renewable energy generation from 18.2% to 30% of its total by 2030. Mongolia also became the first country in Asia to sign onto the E.U.’s Forest Partnerships Program. Norway | Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre pledged that Norway will reduce its emissions by at least 55% by 2030. The country will also increase its carbon tax, double its climate finance over the next four years, and triple its adaptation finance with a focus on Africa.   ​​​​Climate Implementation Summit: The Climate Implementation Summit, part of the World Leaders Summit, concluded with high-level roundtable sessions on investing in the future of energy, water security, and climate change and the sustainability of vulnerable communities.   Climate finance in Africa: The U.K. announced that it would provide £200 million (about $231.3 million) to the African Development Bank Group’s Climate Action Window to help countries adapt to the impacts of climate change. Also, at a high-level event on mobilizing finance for the energy transition, Rajiv Shah, president of The Rockefeller Foundation, said that more than 40 countries, including many in Sub-Saharan Africa, are “teetering on the edge of debt crisis.” He said that this presents a challenge for accelerating private climate finance and shows the need for providing more concessional debt capital and grant money to provide a foundation for private capital to build upon.   South Africa Just Energy Transition Partnership: Yesterday, South Africa unveiled its new Investment Plan as part of the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), which was established at COP26 to decarbonize the country. The JETP Investment Plan will guide the $8.5 billion mobilized by the International Partners Group—which includes the United States—and identifies investments needed in the energy sector, electric vehicles, and green hydrogen. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa applauded the historic deal in a press conference but emphasized that more grants and concessional loans are needed to avoid further increasing the country’s debt.   Forests: The E.U. signed five Memoranda of Understanding with Guyana, Mongolia, the Republic of Congo, Uganda, and Zambia on Forest Partnerships. The new framework aims to enhance the socio-economic role of forests and their ongoing contribution to climate and biodiversity protection. They also contribute to the European goal of sustainably managing 40 million hectares of forests by 2027. ► EESI Briefing: Natural Climate Solutions Climate Prosperity Plans: The heads of state of Ghana, Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh presented their countries’ Climate Prosperity Plans, including Sri Lanka’s newly-launched plan. The leaders emphasized that the plans are framed around climate solutions with an eye towards also supporting growth, health, and development. The four countries are members of the V20, a group of vulnerable countries that work together to increase global climate ambition.   Green Hydrogen in Egypt: Egypt unveiled plans to develop a 100-megawatt green hydrogen facility powered by solar and wind energy. The facility—the first green hydrogen plant in Africa—is planning to produce green ammonia. ► EESI Briefing: Green Hydrogen Global Offshore Wind Alliance: Nine new countries—Belgium, Columbia, Germany, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, the U.K., and the U.S.—joined the Global Offshore Wind Alliance (GOWA), which is spearheaded by the International Renewable Energy Agency, Denmark, and the Global Wind Energy Council to accelerate deployment of offshore wind energy to at least 380 gigawatts by 2030. ► EESI Briefing: Offshore Wind Energy     Conference attendees mingle in Sharm El-Sheikh. Credit: UNFCCC Not on track: The International Renewable Energy Agency released the Renewable Energy Targets in 2022: A Guide to Design yesterday, detailing that national renewable energy targets are currently not ambitious enough to achieve Paris Agreement climate targets. The report finds that by 2030, the level of ambition for renewable energy targets must double. In addition, the UNFCCC Yearbook of Global Climate Action 2022 was released, finding that the world is not on track to keep global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius.   Net-zero pledges: At COP26, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres initiated an effort to “develop stronger and clearer standards for net-zero emissions pledges by non-State entities, including businesses, investors, cities and regions.” Today, he and other leaders, including the COP27 High-Level Champion Mahmoud Mohieldin, launched a report that lays out steps to ensure net-zero pledges are credible and rigorous. It specifically calls out activities that should prohibit a company, investor, or sub-national government from claiming that they have a net-zero commitment.   Adaptation in the IPCC report: The IPCC Working Group II co-chairs and more than 10 authors discussed how their latest climate report covers adaptation needs, which are defined as “circumstances requiring action to ensure safety of populations and security of assets in response to climate impacts.” A co-chair of the Adaptation Committee (an entity under the UNFCCC) also presented the committee’s new technical paper designed to support countries in implementing adaptation actions and reporting. ► EESI Briefing: Key Findings from the Newest Global Assessment Report on Climate Change   Adaptation Agenda: COP27 President Sameh Shoukry announced the Sharm El-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda, which is “a comprehensive, shared agenda to rally global action around 30 adaptation outcomes that are needed to address the adaptation gap and achieve a resilient world by 2030.”   Scaling climate finance: The World Bank Group announced a new partnership to catalyze climate action called Scaling Climate Action by Limiting Emissions (SCALE), which “will provide grants for verifiable emissions reductions and aim to expand the funding sources for these activities, including from the private sector and philanthropies.” EESI resources Articles: Quick reads connecting international climate talks to Congress Briefing series: What Congress Needs to Know About COP27 Key Findings from the Newest Global Assessment Report on Climate Change Climate Change Loss and Damage Natural Climate Solutions What's on the Table for the Negotiations? Climate Summit Recap: Key Outcomes and What Comes Next Climate Change Solutions: Biweekly newsletter covering climate, energy, and environmental issues COP27 Announcement Tracker: Key Announcements from the 2022 U.N. Climate Summit COP27 Report Tracker: Key Climate Reports Launched at the 2022 U.N. Climate Summit EESI United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Glossary of Terms Go-to Resources on the Key Themes of COP27 for Week 1 and Week 2 Tracking the negotiations CarbonBrief: Reporting and analysis on the U.N. Climate Talks, with in-depth tracking of country positions in the negotiations. COP27 Resource Hub: World Resources Institute's extensive set of resources on the climate negotiations. Earth Negotiation Bulletin: A play-by-play of the negotiations plus expert analysis from the International Institute for Sustainable Development | @IISD_ENB ECO Newsletter: The climate advocate’s perspective from Climate Action Network International | @CANIntl Background and logistics Egypt COP27 Presidency website: Priorities, details, and logistics for the negotiations | @Cop27P UNFCCC COP27 website: Conference details and all updates on documents produced during the negotiations | @UNFCCC and @UNFCCCDocuments Congressional Research Service: Reports related to the UNFCCC UNFCCC glossary of terms Questions about COP27? Reach out to EESI Policy Manager Anna McGinn with your question and we will get back to you or include the information in an upcoming newsletter. Thanks for reading!   This newsletter covering COP27 will be running from November 7 to November 21. If you thought this newsletter was interesting, forward it to someone you know! If you were forwarded this edition, sign up here. Thank you to EESI staff for their contributions: Anna McGinn, Savannah Bertrand, Emma Johnson, and Amaury Laporte Environmental and Energy Study Institute  Daniel Bresette, Executive Director EESI is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization established in 1984 by a bipartisan Congressional caucus to provide timely information and develop innovative policy solutions that set us on a cleaner, more secure and sustainable energy path.