ON 6 NOVEMBER, the next international climate summit, called COP27, will begin in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Global leaders will once again shake hands, smile for the cameras and get down to the difficult business of negotiating how to mitigate global heating at the end of a year when its devastating effects became more obvious than ever before.
Last year鈥檚 COP26 summit in Glasgow, UK, was billed as the world鈥檚 last chance to keep the goal of restricting warming to 1.5掳C alive. The Glasgow Climate Pact called on countries to come up with more ambitious plans for limiting or cutting emissions ahead of COP27.
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Hardly any have done so. Egypt鈥檚 own plans would lead to a 50 per cent rise in emissions by 2030, so it isn鈥檛 exactly leading by example. And yet there are reasons for hope, albeit largely from beyond the climate summits, as we report on in 鈥�Why we are making progress on climate action even after a tough year鈥�.
The biggest obstacle to progress has been the energy crisis, caused by Russia鈥檚 invasion of Ukraine. The problems have been severe because nations depend so heavily on fossil fuels, and yet they have led to a new rush to exploit even more. So don鈥檛 expect any major announcements on emissions cuts at COP27.
Where there may be some progress is in efforts to make wealthy countries follow through on the $100 billion they have promised to provide to help other nations cut emissions and adapt to a warmer world. Adaptation has been neglected, but it is absolutely crucial to help limit the damage done as the planet warms.
The main cause for optimism stems from the fact that renewable energy is now the cheapest form of energy just about everywhere. Some governments have thus realised that climate action is the answer to the energy crisis. As the US鈥檚 Inflation Reduction Act seeks to demonstrate, renewables are not only climate friendly, but also a stable, cheap, inflation-busting energy source. In the long run, then, the energy crisis could do more than any climate summit to boost global efforts to go green.
