What was COP27?

By Juan David Amaya, 16 years old, Activist for Climate Justice. Organizer, Fridays For Future

(Juan attended COP27 as a member of the PUSH delegation)

What was COP27?

The objective of COP27 was to respond to compliance with the agreements reached at the last COP in Glasgow and the one in Paris in 2015. Above all, the elimination of carbon dioxide emissions by 2030. The rules are written, and now it is up to the countries of the Global North to raise the level of demand.

COP27 was a summit in which delegations from all over the world met to advance the work programme to combat climate change. Three key areas of intervention of COP27 include i) mitigation, that is, the reduction of emissions that change the climate, ii) adaptation, the actions to reduce the negative impacts of climate change, and iii) the transfer of financial, technological, and intellectual resources from the North to the South. COP27 could be viewed as a condominium meeting, with a rather slow decision-making system that relies on unanimity.

Goals Update

The main objective of COP27 was to implement the decisions that came into force with the Paris Agreement. The articles of the Paris Agreement are fully operational and it is now up to each State to update its own objectives, i.e., the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). On the subject, Colombia is a country that has been innovating a lot in its processes, but it still has a lot of work to do. However, it noted that an effective way to promote the negotiations is the union of the different countries of Latin America, and to promote negotiations with common goals. The current situation, with the newly appointed government in Colombia, will hopefully lead to the formation of a delegation with a clear and transparent direction and political line that will focus on legislating by life as the current president had stated during the campaign.

Demands from developing countries

COP27 was the first conference of the Parties in which all aspects of the Paris Agreement were put in writing. Now that that phase is over, the next COPs will be more political. The most concrete actions have been taken by the Global South, which also asked the Egyptian presidency to work intensively on loss and damage during the interim negotiations in Germany in June. The international context does not seem conducive to new financial initiatives, but it is hoped that progress can be made in this direction. The achievement of the agreement regarding loss and damage, for instance, can become significant for our countries that have historically been the most affected.