COP27: Sierra Club Statement On End Of Negotiations

SHARM EL-SHEIKH -- Today, the 27th UN Conference of Parties (COP27) climate negotiations ended, with countries agreeing to develop new funding arrangements, including a dedicated fund to help the most vulnerable countries cope with the adverse impacts of climate change and reaffirming the need to stay below 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming. 

At the same time, negotiators could not agree on language to phase down  oil and gas use globally, which scientists agree is essential to keeping climate change within manageable limits. That language would have built on the agreement at COP26 to accelerate the phase down of coal use globally. 

Additionally, the US made notable commitments and announcements at COP27, including 

• The EPA announced the long-awaited supplemental methane rule, which aims to establish strong, commonsense protections against methane and other harmful pollution from the oil and gas industry. 
• The Biden Administration announced a new federal contractor emissions rule requiring major federal contractors to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions publicly and set targets for their reduction in line with the 2015 Paris Agreement.
• During his speech at COP27, President Biden also committed to doubling the US pledge to the Adaptation Fund, launching a new initiative to support Egypt in deploying 10 gigawatts of clean energy and retiring five gigawatts of methane gas generation and launching a Climate Gender Equity Fund and an Indigenous Peoples Finance Access Facility.
• The United States announced with Japan and others a $20 billion package of public and private funding to help Indonesia retire coal plants and peak their emissions by the end of the decade.

In response, Sierra Club Senior International Climate and Policy Campaign Director Cherelle Blazer issued the following statement:

“The progress made in Sharm El-Sheikh on creating funding arrangements for Loss and Damage is a landmark achievement. When the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was first agreed 30 years ago, rich countries committed to help climate vulnerable nations cope with the adverse impacts of climate change. That promise, however, has gone almost entirely unfulfilled in the decades since. This agreement from COP27 is the most significant step forward on Loss and Damage that we have ever seen, and it will provide desperately-needed assistance for the countries who need it most. 

“Yet the work is still far from complete. Countries could not even agree on the need to phase down oil and gas use, which is absolutely critical to meeting the 1.5 degree limit.  We are at a point in the climate crisis where we must do what is necessary to secure a livable planet for all, and failing to make progress toward all of our climate goals is unacceptable.”