Day 15 of COP27 was dedicated to Energy, and to ‘ACE and Civil Society’. At the opening session of the Energy thematic day, the COP27 Presidency launched the Africa Just & Affordable Energy Transition Initiative (AJAETI). The initiative will engage the International Energy Agency (IEA) and International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) to provide possible pathways and scenarios for African countries for the most rapid and sustainable achievement of access. Elsewhere, coal was very much in the news, with the announcement of what was described the largest climate transaction in history: a $20 billion of climate finance to end the use of coal in Indonesia. The deal will allow Indonesia’s emissions to peak 7 years earlier than had been planned. Less positive coal news involved India and China, who at last year’s COP26 in Glasgow were responsible for a last-minute intervention to water down the language of the final agreement, changing the commitment to “phase down” rather than “phase out” coal power. Coal reportedly accounts for 70 percent of electricity generation in India, while renewables count for only about 12 percent. Coal is the most polluting of the fossil fuels, and climate scientists insist that it must to be phased out by 2040 to avoid the worst effects of climate change. However, India has put forward the argument that Europe and the US turned back to fossil fuels as the energy crisis deepened and remained unsanctioned, whereas developing countries which rely on coal are unduly pressured to transition from it, at their economic expense. China has also come under criticism for its plans to build more coal plants this year as a short-term measure to address electricity shortages in the country. A different type of energy was the topic of a panel on Offshore Wind as a Key Solution to the Climate and Energy Security Crises, featuring the  Global Offshore Wind Alliance. Ireland’s Minister for Transport, Climate, Environment & Communications Eamon Ryan TD, who is leading Ireland’s delegation to COP27 for the second week joined speakers on the panel. Finally the European Commission’s Vice President Frans Timmermans has told delegates that the European Union will be able to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 57% from 1990 levels by 2030, instead of the 55% originally planned. Did you know about … ACE ACE is a term adopted by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It stands for Action for Climate Empowerment. It aims to integrate civil society into decision-making processes, and its inclusion in the COP27 programme builds on the momentum of COP26 where a work programme specifically focussing on this engagement. Its over-arching goal to empower all members of society to engage in climate action, through the six elements: Education Public awareness Training Public participation Public access to information International cooperation. Why ACE matters? Implementation of all six ACE elements is crucial to the global response to climate change. Sustainable lifestyles, sustainable patterns of consumption and production, are fundamental to reducing greenhouse emissions and enhancing resilience to the inevitable effects of climate change. Success will require broad collaboration between all levels of government and all sectors of society. Read more here https://unfccc.int/ace   You can find all our COP27 updates, information, guidance and supports to help members understand sustainability and meet the challenges it presents in our online Sustainability Centre.  

    The second week at COP27 opened with Water Day and Gender Day. Discussions as part of Water Day covered topics from sustainable water resource management, water scarcity and drought, to cross boundary cooperation and improvement of early warning systems. Gender Day, on the other hand, focused on how a disproportionate burden from the adverse impacts of climate change falls on women, and aims to bring this reality into the processes of formulating and implementing policies and actions on the ground.    In advance of COP27, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and partners had called for ‘urgent action’ at the summit in order to enshrine gender equality into climate finance. At the summit today the topic of Gender Responsive Climate Financing (GRCF) was discussed at a Women and Climate Change Finance event. GRCF addresses the need for resource mobilizations strategies and financing policies to clearly reflect women’s needs and realities within climate action plans and governing instruments, and turn them into numbers that can be of benefit to women. In headline news, it was announced that the world’s two largest economies — and two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases — will restart talks on the climate crisis. In a meeting described as a breakthrough in the effort to avert catastrophic global warming, US President, Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, President of China, met for several hours before the Group of 20 summit in Indonesia, and agreed to restart climate negotiations. Also reported is that Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo have signed a strategic alliance to coordinate discussions on forest conservation at the G20 talks, which will begin in Indonesia on Tuesday 15-16 November. As much as 52 percent of the world’s remaining primary tropical forests are in these three countries, which are crucial to avoiding climate catastrophe. The newly elected President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, will attend COP27 on Wednesday where he is expected to discuss efforts to save the Amazon and other forests around the world. Also in the news was the Global Shield Against Climate Risks initiative, an initiative coordinated by G7 president, Germany, and which is being developed in collaboration with the 'V20' group of 58 climate vulnerable economies. First proposed in July 2022, the Global Shield aims to provide rapid access for climate-vulnerable countries to insurance and disaster protection funding after floods or drought. It was announced that Bangladesh, Costa Rica, Fiji, Ghana, Pakistan, the Philippines and Senegal will be some of the initial recipients of Global Shield packages, which would be developed in the coming months. On Day 3 of the COP27 proceedings, Taoiseach Michael Martin announced that Ireland will donate €10m to the financing structure. Finally, retailers including H&M, Stella McCartney and Kering have also announced that they will purchase over half a million tonnes of low-carbon, low footprint alternative fibres – fibres made from waste textiles and agricultural residues instead of forest fibres – for clothing and packaging to help reduce global emissions. It is hoped that this will avoid almost 1Gt of CO2 emissions between now and 2030. Over the weekend at COP27 Late on Friday evening, the United Kingdom signed up to the joint declaration from energy importers and exporters on reducing GHG from fossil fuels. In doing so, the UK joined the United States, European Union, Japan, Canada, Norway and Singapore in a commitment to take “rapid action to address the dual climate and energy security crises that the world faces”. Saturday saw a full day devoted to agriculture for the first time at a COP: Adaptation & Agriculture Day. A Food and Agriculture for Sustainable Transformation initiative was launched, promising to boost climate finance for transitioning agrifood systems. Food systems currently receive only 3 percent of climate finance despite accounting for about a third of all emissions. India also published its plan for net zero by 2070 and Mexico announced an improved greenhouse gas emissions target to cut emissions by 35 percent by 2030, up from an earlier target of 22 percent. Find out more Official full agenda for the conference’s thematic days here. Find a summary of last week’s headlines from Bloomberg here. Find out about the ISSB’s announcements last week at COP27 in this podcast  Read more about the ISSB’s progress it has since being established at COP 26 here You can find all our COP27 updates, information, guidance and supports to help members understand sustainability and meet the challenges it presents in our online Sustainability Centre.  

(From the Chartered Accountants Ireland Professional Accountancy Team's 'Technical Round Up', November 11, 2022) CDP, the not-for-profit which runs the global environmental disclosure platform for corporations, and the IFRS Foundation have announced that CDP will incorporate the International Sustainability Standard Board’s (ISSB) IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures Standard [IFRS S2] into its global environmental disclosure platform, in a major step towards delivering a comprehensive global baseline for capital markets through the adoption of ISSB standards. The ISSB have also made some other announcements in the past week, including; Details of discussions held on the reference to other standards to support interoperability with other sustainability related standards November 2022 supplementary update A summary of its main achievements, in the year following its creation at COP 26 in November 2021. Announcement of implementation steps that will help jurisdictions prepare for its implementation. The Irish government this week launched a report outlining the skills required by the domestic retail financial services sector to finance Ireland’s net zero transition. You can read the press release here. The report highlights how education and training in sustainable finance to date has concentrated on the financial and capital markets, such as green bonds, regulatory developments, and sustainable investment funds, with a greater focus on the Irish retail financial services sector talent development a next key step. Click here for a copy of the report. In its recently released report “Getting to Net Zero: A Global Review of Corporate Disclosures” the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) have highlighted the inconsistency and incomparability of target disclosures and have highlighted that COP27 is the perfect time to dig into what is being disclosed and to explore how emission disclosures can become more decision-useful.

  The US dominated COP27 today as US President Joe Biden visited the two-week-long international climate summit in Egypt for ‘Decarbonisation Day’. “Folks, it’s going to take all of us”, President Biden announced in his speech, saying that every nation had to do its part in order to permanently bend the emissions curve, and announcing new US support of $100m for adaptation. The Inflation Reduction Act, the landmark US climate bill passed earlier this year would “unleash a new era of clean energy and economic growth”, the president went on to say, echoing comments of US national climate advisor Ali Zaidi who described in an interview with Bloomberg that “100s of millions of metric tonnes  of opportunity” would result from the transition. “We are proving that good climate policy is good economic policy”, President Biden stated, describing how the US is the first government to require that major federal suppliers disclose their emissions and climate risk and set targets for themselves that are aligned with the Paris Agreement. Elsewhere at the summit countries launched a package of 25 new collaborative actions under a ‘Breakthrough Agenda’, a masterplan to accelerate decarbonisation of five major sectors - power, road transport, steel, hydrogen and agriculture. Under the agenda, governments representing over half of global GDP set out 12-month action plan to help make clean technologies cheaper and more accessible everywhere. In other news signatories to the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action agreed to a set of targets including halving emissions by 2030, switching to low-carbon materials and scaling renewable energy across their supply chain. COP27 continues with Adaptation & Agriculture Day on 12 November, and will resume on Monday 14 November with Gender Day. You can find the full agenda for the conference’s thematic days here. Chartered Accountants Ireland will continue to bring you updates for the event.   You can find all our COP27 updates, information, guidance and supports to help members understand sustainability and meet the challenges it presents in our online Sustainability Centre.  

  'Youth' is the theme of Day 5 at COP27, the second of the 11 'themed days' in the two-week-long international climate summit taking place this year in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Among the stark warnings about the future of the planet, news also broke that more than 600 fossil fuel lobbyists were in attendance at the conference, an increases of more than 25 per cent from last year, reportedly outnumbering any country’s delegation with the exception of the UEA. The previous day – ‘Finance Day’ – had been dominated by news of a possible warming in the relations between the US and China, although China did bring forward its date for peaking carbon emissions for building materials from 2030, reportedly disappointing the building materials sector as a whole, which wants to reach peak emissions by 2025. John Kerry’s carbon credit plan to drive climate finance in developing nations was also met with criticism, but the US climate envoy pointed out that private finance is required to pay for the transition as no government can afford to. Staying with the US, former Vice President Al Gore continued to stress that the markets are more powerful than any attempts by the US Republican party to bring about what he terms a ‘sustainability revolution’: “whatever politicians in different countries want to opine on, we’re seeing business and investors and markets move towards solutions for the climate crisis.” Although much coverage around this COP is devoted to the resistance by the developed economies to paying ‘loss and damage’ to developing countries, there have been some positive announcements such as France and Germany signing €600 million loan agreements with South Africa to assist the country in its efforts to reduce reliance on coal and transition to cleaner energy sources. Leading global experts from the natural and social sciences also presented a report on the latest climate change-related research this year and responds to clear calls for policy guidance during this critical decade. A key focus of the report -  10 New Insights in Climate Science  - was the limits of humankind to adapt to the inevitable impacts of climate change, which include ever more frequent and severe drought, storms and floods. Some useful resources An overview of the last 30 years of COPs by Guardian reporter Fiona Harvey (YouTube) The Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney emphasised the “moral obligation” on the world to act on climate (The Journal)   You can find all our COP27 updates, information, guidance and supports to help members understand sustainability and meet the challenges it presents in our online Sustainability Centre.  

  In this week’s bulletin we bring you news of an Irish Government report into sustainable finance talent needed by the Irish financial services sector, published the same week as a UCC report finding Irish businesses 'underprepared' for net zero transition. Read about a proposal to oblige Ireland’s heat sector to include renewable heat; the establishment of a dedicated planning and environmental division of the High Court; an EU proposal for new temporary energy regulation for renewal energy sources; a report into the risks facing citizens and businesses from heatwaves in Europe; and an IFAC report highlighting the lack of comparability in corporate climate reporting. You can also find out how to measure your business carbon footprint, what is happening at COP27 and what events to watch out for. COP27 – “Together for implementation – just and ambitious" With the world’s international climate conference COP27 now well under way in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt, Chartered Accountants Ireland will be closely monitoring progress until the conference closes on 18 November. For members who want to follow the proceedings and get insights into their applicability for the accounting profession, see our daily news round-ups on our website, and on LinkedIn and Twitter. You can find out more our COP27 webpage, which also includes our glossary of climate terminology "Climate Essentials for Accountants". All of this and more is available for free to download at the Chartered Accountants Ireland Sustainability Centre. Irish Government launches report on sustainable finance talent Minister of State at the Department of Finance with special responsibility for Financial Services, Credit Unions and Insurance, Seán Fleming TD, this week launched a report outlining the skills required by the domestic retail financial services sector to finance Ireland’s net zero transition. Released to coincide with COP27 Finance Day on 9 November, the Sustainable Banking and Finance Report identifies the skills gaps, education and training needs for Ireland’s retail financial services in the area of sustainable finance, and makes a number of key recommendations as to how to progress the sustainable finance agenda. Decarbonising Ireland’s heat sector It was announced last week that Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan TD, will introduce an obligation on the heat sector to include renewable heat by 2024. Ireland’s renewable energy share in the heat sector last year was 6.8 percent, compared to the European Union average of 22 percent. A scoping exercise will be carried out to develop options for the proposed structure of the scheme, including an examination of proposed obligation rates, scalability, and costs to the consumer. Report finds Irish businesses 'underprepared' for net zero transition A new report by UCC’s Sustainable Futures Project has reportedly found that Irish businesses are ‘significantly underprepared’ when it comes to making the transformative changes required to transition to a net zero future. "The Sustainability Transformation: Assessing the Readiness of Irish Businesses", which included a national survey of 380 small and medium-sixed firms and larger enterprises across industry and service sectors, was commissioned by Microsoft Ireland. It found that businesses might underestimate the scale of ambition and action that are required to build a path to net zero emissions by 2050, with only 22 percent having committed to a net zero target. This is in spite of the Government’s aim to reduce emissions nationally by 51 percent by 2030 and to become carbon neutral by 2050. Role of finance function combatting climate change impact “Finance and accounting professionals need to move beyond simply measuring and reporting the impact of climate change, environmental regulation, supply chain pressure and rising energy costs. They must focus on understanding those implications and integrating them into financial management and business planning.” In this article by Sustainability: Finance at the heart of decision making, authors Nina Johansson and Henning Diederichs discuss the goal of climate reporting and the challenges facing finance professionals in collecting data from different professions (climate scientists, engineers, meteorologists, etc). Dedicated Planning and Environment division of High Court to be established It was announced this week that the establishment of a dedicated Planning and Environment division of the High Court has received Government approval. The new court, which was committed to in the Programme for Government will be established “as soon as possible” without the need for amending primary legislation. Commenting, Minister for Justice Helen McEntee, TD, said that it is envisaged that the court will operate in a similar manner to the Commercial Court and will work in tandem with reforms to planning legislation, to bring about improvements in the ability to process cases and in costs, and to be consistent with Ireland’s obligations under EU environmental law. EU proposes new temporary emergency regulation for renewable energy sources The European Commission has proposed a new temporary emergency regulation to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy sources. The new Council Regulation will apply for one year while the Renewable Energy Directive (currently discussed by the co-legislators) is being adopted and transposed in all Member States. It will target specific technologies and types of projects which have the highest potential for quick deployment and the least impact on the environment. Probability increases of dengue and malaria in Europe With increasing heatwaves the spread of climate-sensitive infectious diseases like dengue and malaria represent a new emerging threat for Europe. A new report from European Environment Agency (EEA)’s Climate change as a threat to health and well-being in Europe: focus on heat and infectious diseases focuses on the impact high temperatures are having on the European population, especially as over a fifth of it is aged 65 and over. The report describes ‘heat-aware working conditions’, that employers could consider, listing examples on p.32 of the report, of specific plans developed by Member States for the protection of the working population from heat events. IFAC report highlights lack of comparability in corporate climate reporting A new report Getting to Zero: A Global Review of Corporate Disclosures based on 2020 corporate reporting has been released by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC). It found inconsistency and incomparability in how corporates are reporting on how they are reducing their carbon emissions, which may pose challenges for investors, regulators, and other stakeholders who require actionable information. The report analyses disclosure trends in emissions reduction targets and transition plans of the 40 largest exchange-listed companies in 15 jurisdictions, for a total of 600 companies. Calculate your carbon footprint Revenue’s guidelines for eligible businesses wishing to avail of the Temporary Business Energy Support Scheme (TBESS) state that they must tick a box declaring that they have completed a carbon footprint exercise and are taking steps to reduce its energy use and environmental impact. In this short ‘Ask the Expert’ interview on 10 November, Chartered Engineer Joe Borza gave simple steps to  calculate your carbon footprint using the free Government resources. Joe also shows how businesses can make better energy decisions and reduce their costs and emissions. You can watch the interview here.  Some useful resources Tangible progress on climate finance options lifts the mood at Cop27 (Irish Times) A new report from The Rockefeller Foundation and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) finds that the term climate finance is used loosely with varying definitions resulting in difficulties calculating finance flowing into climate areas. Despite this shortcoming the research was able to show that only about 16percent of the necessary climate finance to reach net-zero is being deployed The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) recently released v0.3 of its beta framework for nature-related risk & opportunity management and disclosure - it is now open for feedback! (A4S on LinkedIn) Upcoming events SEAI SME Business Briefing webinar, 17 November, 10am. Learn how your business can save energy and money, and how you can fund your energy investments. COP27: 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly referred to as ‘COP27’, Sharm El Sheikh, 6 - 18 November 2022 Accountancy Europe, SMEs' sustainable transition: how to support it? 15 November, 10:00-11:30 CET   Institute of Chartered Accountant England & Wales, ICAEW Climate Summit, 21-25 November 2022 (Virtual). With growing climate concerns an ever-present consideration for companies around the world, what can – and should – finance professionals be doing to support efforts towards net zero, sustainability and green finance? This week of virtual sessions will join experts and professionals from across sectors to engage on this biggest of issues. Reuters, Sustainability Reporting and Communications Europe,Nov 22-23 November 2022, London   Biodiversity COP15 Part 2, 7-19 December  You can find information, guidance and supports to help members understand sustainability and meet the challenges it presents in our onlineSustainability Centre.  

  Wednesday, 9 November 2022, and Day 4 of the international climate summit COP27, was Finance Day.  As the focus at this year’s conference is on adaptation to climate change, the role of private finance in building resilience to physical climate change impacts is key, as this short video explains.  The previous day, Tuesday 8 November, closed with the launch of the Sharm-El-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda – 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.   The day also saw the publication of a UN report launched to crack down on corporate ‘greenwashing’ around net-zero claims. The report, Integrity Matters: Net Zero Commitments by Businesses, Financial Institutions, Cities and Regions, was published by a UN-convened high-level expert group that was set up in March 2022 to develop stronger standards and scrutiny of net-zero pledges from non-state entities such as businesses and investors, as well as cities and regions. In laying out ‘red lines’ to prevent “dishonest climate accounting”, the report recommended that non-state actors should no longer be able to claim to be net zero while engaging in deforestation or funding new fossil fuel supply, or lobbying to undermine ambitious government climate policies either directly or through trade associations or other bodies.  It was also announced that CDP, the not-for-profit which runs the global environmental disclosure platform for corporations will incorporate the International Sustainability Standard Board’s (ISSB) IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures Standard [IFRS S2] into its global environmental disclosure platform. This is a major step towards delivering a comprehensive global baseline for capital markets through the adoption of ISSB standards.  The US also announced for the first time a roadmap for nature-based solutions to fight climate change, strengthen communities, and support local economies.  Ireland was one of nine new countries which signed up to the  Global Offshore Wind Alliance, pledging to a rapid ramp up of offshore wind in order to tackle the climate and energy security crises. The alliance was initiated by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Denmark and the Global Wind Energy Council. It aims to  bring together governments, the private sector, international organisations and other stakeholders to accelerate the deployment of offshore wind power.  Some useful resources  Coverage of the new report to crackdown on corporate ‘greenwashing’ around net-zero claims in Reuters and the Irish Times  “There is a growing pressure for governments to force some universal standards and accounting rules on net zero targets” (The Times)  Debunked: Five common climate myths and why they're wrong: The Journal   Did you know….about the Capacity-building Hubs at COP27?  As far back as 1994, the UNFCCC knew it had to build and enhance relevant capacity to implement climate-mitigation (reducing emissions) and adaptation (adapting to climate change).   To do this, it began establishing ‘Capacity-building Hubs’ at the international climate summits (COPs). Capacity-building hubs are spaces for representation, collaboration, and knowledge sharing, allowing those involved climate change mitigation and adaptation a platform to work together for higher ambition and greater action. Friday 11 November will be the 'Just Transition & Sustainable Economies Day' hub day.    You can find all our COP27 updates, information, guidance and supports to help members understand sustainability and meet the challenges it presents in our online Sustainability Centre.  

  Finance, and how it is to be channelled to the developing world, dominated the agenda of COP27 again on Tuesday 8 November, the third day of the international climate summit. On Monday, Former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson had called for “solidarity funding”  from the World Bank and the IMF for developing countries. Tuesday began with reports of record temperatures in October in parts of Europe, as delegates gathered in the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh for the second day of the World Leaders Summit and heard first-hand accounts from nations devastated by or at severe risk from climate change, including from Shehbaz Sharif, the prime minister of Pakistan: “An estimate of damage of loss has exceeded 30 billion dollars” he stated “and this all happened despite our very low carbon footprints. We became a victim of something with which we had nothing to do, and of course it was a manmade disaster.” The president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa called on multilateral development banks to change their approach to climate finance, stating that more funding must come in the form of grants and concessional loans without the costs associated with existing funding. Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi called for direct contributions to national treasuries rather than project-based climate adaptation funding. It is clear that scale of the finance required is enormous. A report co-written by the climate economist Lord Nicholas Stern showed that $2 trillion a year is needed by developing countries to enable them to transition from fossil fuels, invest in renewable energy and other low-carbon technology, and cope with the impacts of extreme weather. As a huge proportion of this finance will come from private-sector businesses, there are calls for reform in the finance sector to allow for easier access to capital for renewable projects, which tends to be harder to acquire than funding to finance for fossil fuel projects.   Taoiseach Michael Martin interviewed here, in turn called for new tools to help countries deal with weather disasters:  “Along with all of the measures we must take to reduce emissions, we also now have to look at adaptation, and create financial instruments in terms of dealing with catastrophic risk,” he said. Earlier on Tuesday, the Taoiseach announced that Ireland will donate €10m to the Global Shield Against Climate Risks initiative, a new financing structure that was first proposed in July 2022 and which aims to channel capital to protect vulnerable nations against climate and disaster risks, tailoring support to countries and match them with finance, insurance and technical mechanisms.  In his later address to the World Leaders Summit,  the Taoiseach stated that “If this generation does not step up urgently, future generations will not forgive us.” “This generation of leaders cannot say that we didn’t know…The science is clear.  Every tonne of carbon warms the world.  Every delay makes our task that bit bigger. Let us not waste a second more.” The Taoiseach referred to Ireland’s international climate finance roadmap and announced that Ireland is more than doubling our finance to at least €225 million at year by 2025. Other headline items include the call for an international fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty, so far by only two countries: the small Pacific Islands nations of Tuvalu and Vanuatu. Another was the proposal by the US for carbon credits which it says could be purchased by major companies to fund clean energy projects in poorer countries. However, the UN High-Level Expert Group on the Net-Zero Emissions Commitments of Non-State Entities has called for “red lines” to stop support for new fossil fuel exploration and overuse of carbon offsets. The group, created in March by the UN secretary general, António Guterres, aims to crack down on the greenwashing of net zero pledges by industry and governments. It stated that carbon offsets should be used only sparing, if at all, and then only after immediate cuts are made in absolute emissions. (Offsets are an often controversial practices whereby companies and governments pay for cuts elsewhere instead of reducing their own pollution.) The market for offsets continues, however, and on Tuesday a group of African countries including Kenya, Malawi, Gabon, Nigeria and Togo are backing a new initiative to “dramatically expand” the use of carbon offsets, aiming to produce 300 million credits annually by 2030 with each representing a metric ton of reduced, removed or avoided greenhouse gas emissions. The UK Transition Plan Taskforce (TPT) also launched its Disclosure Framework and Guidance for the private sector, emphasising the need for concrete, short-term action by companies and financial firms across the economy. The TPT was announced in 2021 at COP26 as part of the UK’s plan to become the world’s first net zero financial centre. It has a two-year mandate from HM Treasury to provide financial institutions and companies with the tools they need to create rigorous transition plans to fulfil their net zero commitments. Loss and damage continued to dominate speeches, with criticisms levelled at the US which, like most of the EU, has consistently resisted paying compensation to countries most severely impacted by climate change. There are exceptions to this resistance to pay, though: New Zealand announced a $20m climate fund for land and resources lost by developing countries to the effects of the climate crisis., and five European countries - Austria, Scotland, Belgium, Denmark and Germany - have committed to fund the loss and damage finance mechanism. Some useful resources Summary of loss and damage by Pilita Clark in The Financial Times This article in the Examiner, by UCC Professor Hannah Daly discusses the valuation of the damage climate change and as well as the best outcome we can hope for from the negotiations. Podcast from Bloomberg Green’s Akshat Rathi’s on Loss and Damage, direct from COP: Zero Did you know….about the Global Stocktake? The ‘Global Stocktake’ is the UN’s way of taking stock of the implementation of the Paris Agreement. It assesses progress towards achieving the pact’s goal to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees celsius above pre-industrial levels, and to scale up climate finance. The stocktake has three components Collecting and preparing information. This is currently underway at COP27. Technical assessment component, which will end in June 2023. Consideration of the outputs. This will take place at COP28 in November in Dubai next year. The global stocktake will provide critical information for countries and stakeholders to see what progress has been made on meeting the Paris Agreement goals, as well as identify any remaining gaps and opportunities for increased action.  You can find all our COP27 updates, information, guidance and supports to help members understand sustainability and meet the challenges it presents in our online Sustainability Centre.  

  Day 1 “Together for implementation – just and ambitious” is the hashtag of COP27, the major international climate summit which got under way in the Egyptian city of Sharm El-Sheikh on 6 November. The opening ceremony saw COP26 President Alok Sharma of the UK, which hosted the summit last year in Glasgow, hand the role over for COP27 to Sameh Shoukry, Egypt’s Minister for Foreign Affairs. In his speech Alok Sharma asked 'How many more wake-up calls do leaders need?’ and went to state that “we know that we have reached a point where finance makes or breaks the programme of work that we have ahead of us.” The defining issue at this year’s COP is likely to be loss and damage. ‘Loss and damage’ refers to the adverse effects of climate change on countries, particularly those most vulnerable, in the form of extreme weather events, sea level rise, increasing temperatures, and its other severe impacts. How loss and damage is interpreted by many, though, is that richer, developed countries should pay poorer nations reparations for harm done by emissions, as the countries most affected by climate change tend to be those who did the least to cause it. Seen as a critical human rights issue, the treatment of loss and damage (it only made it onto the agenda after much brokerage last night) has sparked fears that developed countries will attempt to avoid any liability or compensation, and that delays will result in continued hardship by those severely affected regions: at COP26 last year, the EU and US both refused to back calls by the G77 coalition of developing countries for a dedicated Finance Facility for loss and damage. Day 2 More than 100 heads of states and governments arrived for the World Leaders Summit on Monday, the two-day gathering that kicks off the fortnight-long conference. Among them was Ireland's Taoiseach Micheál Martin whose speech is due on Tuesday 8 November. Other heads of state included: Mia Mottley, prime minister of Barbados, who among others called for major reform of the World Bank and IMF to deliver more much more climate funding Emmanuel Macron, president of France, who backed these calls and said that we must not sacrifice our climate commitments to the energy crisis caused by the war in the Ukraine. Macron also spoke of the need for “energy sobriety”, to transition away from fossil fuels. The president of the Seychelles, Wavel Ramkalawan, for whom finance was the highest priority. The island-nation president pointed to the nation’s need for concessional funds to fight climate change, stating that many developing nations are already heavily indebted and cannot support further high-interest loans. In a world-first deal in 2018, the Seychelles swapped some debt in return for establishing huge ocean protection parks. UK prime minister Rishi Sunak, who on Monday launched a global Forests and Climate Leaders Partnership aimed at boosting implementation of a previous commitment made at last year’s COP to reverse deforestation by 2030. The event began with a film about the importance of trees narrated by David Attenborough and with clips of King Charles II and US President Joe Biden. William Ruto, president of Kenya and chair of the Africa group of nations at COP27, who described the impact of the climate crisis on Africa as a “living nightmare”, particularly the drought in the horn of Africa, but said that Africa, if given the right financial support could engage in a green energy and sustainable farming transition and plant trees. Taneti Maamau, president of Kiribati, a low-lying island state described how the nation this year declared a state of emergency due to severe lack of fresh water, as ocean waves washed over their land. Quotes from the day “I deeply believe that COP27 is an opportunity to showcase unity against an existential threat that we can only overcome through concerted action and effective implementation.” Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi “We are in the fight of our lives, and we are losing. Greenhouse gas emissions keep growing. Global temperatures keep rising. And our planet is fast approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible.” UN Secretary General António Guterres