User:Mayaworthing/2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference

User:Mayaworthing/2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference

2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference

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Sponsorship

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The conference was sponsored by Coca-Cola. Several environmental campaigners suggested this was greenwashing, given the company's contribution to plastic pollution. Coca-Cola is the largest plastic polluter in the world with 1.9 billion consumptions of Coca-Cola products per day around the world. This has led to three million tons of plastic packaging used by the Coca-Cola Company in one year. These plastic bottles are not biodegradable and are fabricated from toxic chemical compounds. For example, plastic Coca-Cola bottles demonstrated high levels of phthalate ester leaching. It is recommended to avoid drinking from plastic bottles that leach these chronic and highly toxic chemicals. Lack of proper disposal causes these bottles to be released into the environment. This has harmful consequences to animals if they ingest plastics and in environments such as degradation into microplastics. Coca-Cola is a multinational litter brand meaning its single use plastic packaging has various consequences dependent on regional and national plastic regulations and/or laws. The company also has very high water usage despite its water neutrality pledge.

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Challenges for the African continent

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In a report published in October 2021, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) considered Africa to be the most vulnerable continent to the effects of climate change. More than 100 million Africans will in fact be threatened by global warming between now and 2030. Thus many States, NGOs and African commentators hoped that the holding of this summit in an African country would improve the visibility of the priority demands of civil society and African States, in particular the compensation of developing countries for the consequences of global warming. There will be an increase in many threats such as droughts, rain season timing changes, temperatures and precipitation. This will not only have consequences on people but also on agriculture. These changes will affect crop production as it is dependent on temperature, humidity, and precipitation. Lack of produce will have negative consequences on many countries in Africa by struggling to support and feed the population.

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Introduction

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The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, more commonly referred to as COP27, was the 27th United Nations Climate Change conference, held from November 6 until November 20, 2022 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. It took place under the presidency of Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry, with more than 92 heads of state and an estimated 35,000 representatives, or delegates, of 190 countries attending. It was the fifth climate summit held in Africa, and the first since 2016.

The conference has been held annually (except 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic) since the first UN climate agreement in 1992. It is used by governments to agree on policies to limit global temperature rises and adapt to impacts associated with climate change. The conference led to the first loss and damage fund being created.

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Background - added United Nations Environment Programme as per peer review suggestion

added "that impacted countries in South, Central and North America" in reference to hurricane Ian.

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Possible climate change measures were discussed at the 2022 United Nations General Assembly, including the governments of several island nations launching the Rising Nations initiative, and Denmark and Scotland announcing climate finance measures for developing countries. On October 14, 2022, the Scottish government called for climate reparations at COP27, as a "moral responsibility". At a pre-COP meeting in October 2022, UN Secretary-General António Guterres emphasized the importance of the conference given the impacts of climate change observed in 2022, such as floods in Pakistan, heat waves in Europe and Hurricane Ian that impacted countries in South, Central and North America.

The conference was the first COP to take place in Africa since 2016, when COP22 was held in Marrakesh. Egypt's Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry took over the presidency from Sharma at the start of the conference. The United States decided to support climate talks at COP27, and pledged to try to assist countries that are most affected by climate change.

One week ahead of the summit, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), released a report outlining how there was "no credible pathway" to limiting global temperature increase to 1.5 °C and that mitigation efforts since COP26 had been "woefully inadequate". But countries can curb time spent in a warmer world by adopting more ambitious climate pledges and decarbonizing faster, according to a new research published in the academic journal Nature Climate Change during the COP27.

Several days before the opening of the summit a report was published, sponsored by some of the biggest agricultural companies. The report was produced by Sustainable Markets Initiative, an organization of companies trying to become climate friendly, established by King Charles III. According to the report, Regenerative agriculture is already implemented on 15% of all cropland. The rate of transition is nevertheless "far too slow" and must be tripled by the year 2030 for preventing the global temperature to pass the threshold of 1.5 °C above pre-industrial level. Agricultural practices must immediately change so as not to "destroy[...] the planet". One of the authors emphasized that “[t]he interconnection between human health and planetary health is more evident than ever before”. The authors proposed a set of measures for accelerating the transition, like creating metrics for measuring how much the farming is sustainable and pay the farmers who will change their farming mode to more sustainable. They wanted to present their propositions in the summit.

Two days before the start of the talks, a compromise was reached, "that discussion would focus on 'cooperation and facilitation' not 'liability or compensation. The ultimate goal of the 2022 COP27 was in dispute. Wealthy countries were expected to focus on ways to help developing nations phase out fossil fuels and transition to renewable energy. However, there are tensions between richer, developed countries and poorer nations, over who should pay the costs of global warming. This is because developed countries bear the brunt of climate impacts as they contribute higher carbon emissions and environmental pollution. These discrepancies were expected to be defined and decided in the conference.

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Protests during the conference - added Svitlana Romanko hyperlink back as per peer review suggestion.

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On November 15, 2022, Polish climate activists Dominika Lasota and Wiktoria Jędroszkowiak, and Ukrainian activists Svitlana Romanko, Valeria Bondarieva and Viktoriya Ball protested during a session held by Russians, whose 150-person delegation included 33 fuel lobbyists. The activists called out to the Russian delegation, stating that the Russians were war criminals who didn't have the right to be present at the conference and didn't deserve respect. Lasota called the Russians "despicable" (Polish: podłymi) and held up a banner "Fossil Fuels Kill". The activists were forced out by security personnel. Justin Rowlatt of BBC News was also removed from the Russian session by security personnel after he asked the Russian delegation, "Do you plan to compensate for the damage made to the natural environment in Ukraine?".

For further information see: Protests against the Russian invasion of Ukraine

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Introduction section

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The conference has been held annually (except 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic) since the first UN climate agreement in 1992. It is used by governments to agree on policies to limit global temperature rises and adapt to impacts associated with climate change. The conference led to the first loss and damage fund being created.

Participation

As a COVID-19 recovery strategy, the Egyptian government increased hotel prices in Sharm El Sheikh, leading to concerns over the affordability and inclusivity of the conference. Egypt's foreign, environment and social solidarity ministries privately selected and screened local NGOs that would be permitted to apply for one-time registration for the climate summit. The application process and the selection criteria were not made public.

By the number of attendees the COP is the second largest after COP26 in Glasgow, at 33,449 participants. This is the first COP without observer states as all participating countries, including Vatican City, have ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. 11,711 participants were from 1,751 non-governmental organizations. The United Arab Emirates led the largest delegation with 1,073 participants, followed by Brazil (573), and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (459). Many of the ten largest delegations came from African countries.

Opening days
In his opening remarks, Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi called for countries to act on climate change, drawing attention to the impact of extreme weather events in recent years. Barbados premier Mia Mottley called for grant-based rather than loan-based approach to climate finance. She requested that world leaders implement natural disaster clauses to developing countries' debt. She explains that development banks, the institutions that provide developing countries with finances for development are outdated. In her speech she praised Denmark as they are the first country to propose a fund that directly helps countries who face the most severe consequences from climate change.

Outcomes
At the conference, a loss and damage fund was agreed for the first time, which was considered a significant achievement. The loss and damage fund is an agreement to provide funding to countries who are most vulnerable and affected by climate change. This was a very significant breakthrough that helps developing countries that experience the worst impacts.

Further information: Climate change in Africa

A commitment to phase out fossil fuels was not made. Countries had failed to move away from fossil fuels, and although they have focused on "low emission energy", this is still a source of green house gas emissions.

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Trying to make paragraph more neutral and balanced

Before the summit and protests
On July 15, 2022, a White House adviser, Jerome Foster II, and a British climate justice activist, Elijah Mckenzie-Jackson, wrote a letter to the UNFCCC condemning the choice of Egypt as host of the COP27. The letter written to Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary of UNFCCC, requested it to move the conference to another safer African country due to concerns over LGBT rights, women's rights and civil rights suppression in Egypt. Various human rights groups, including Amnesty International, viewed COP27 as an opportunity for Egypt to lift restrictions on civic space, and advocated for it to release its political prisoners and create a safe environment for advocates after COP27 ends.