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  Solutions Day at COP27 was the  last of the thematic days at the two-week long international climate summit. The day aimed to bring together government representatives, businesses and innovators; however, the closing of Solutions Day on Thursday 17 November Cop27 seemed to present more problems that solutions. With the publication of a draft climate deal, concerns rose over the reaching of a final agreement. The draft contained no details of the critical issue of a fund for loss and damage, nor did it call for a phasing down of all fossil fuels to build on the inclusion of the wording from last year’s COP in Glasgow which introduced ‘phasing down’ of coal. Irish Minister for Transport, Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan, is leading loss and damage negotiations for the EU. Commenting, Minister Ryan stated: “We’re serious about providing the greatest support for particularly the most vulnerable countries. The key task is to turn that intent into a common text that people can rally behind.”   With the summit due to close on Friday 18 November, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has urged governments to ‘act – and act quickly’ to overcome their differences and deliver meaningful results. Elsewhere at COP27, the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions held their closing event ‘COP27 Action Agenda: Progress & Priorities’, at which they focused on accountability, fairness, and an assessment of non-State progress at COP27. The Champions wrapped up a two-week programme of over 50 events, including the launch of the Sharm-El-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda, a comprehensive two-year Glasgow–Sharm el-Sheikh work programme on adaptation (2022-2023). It also included a number of major African-led initiatives to cut emissions and build climate resilience, and significant work on the mobilisation of finance. Ireland’s former President, Mary Robinson, Chair of The Elders, was among the keynote speakers. Article of interest   Getting rid of fossil fuels at a climate summit is harder than you’d think (The Guardian)   Cop27 deadlocked over loss and damage issue with developing countries digging in (The Irish Times)   Eamon Ryan appointed lead EU negotiator on crunch Cop27 climate loss and damage issue (The Irish Independent)   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.  

  16 November was Biodiversity Day at COP27, and headline news was the arrival of Brazilian President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (Lula) at the summit. In his speech, President-elect Lula said that climate change will have the highest profile in his government, and that he will prioritize efforts to fight deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. In a separate statement the architects of the Paris Agreement urged leaders to step up action to address the accelerating loss of nature by delivering an ambitious and transformative global biodiversity agreement at COP15, with the necessary finance and technical support to drive immediate action on the ground. The theme of Biodiversity Day echoes an event from Finance Day, which took place during the first week of the international climate summit. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) issued the world's first guidance to help investors, financiers, companies, and governments identify investments that protect and rehabilitate biodiversity and ecosystems. The Biodiversity Finance Reference Guide is a market framework for biodiversity finance, a fast-growing domain of green finance that aims to support activities that conserve and restore biodiversity and ecosystem services. The guide was described by Makhtar Diop, IFC's Managing Director as “a compass for businesses and investors seeking to align their activities with the goals of sustainable growth and a healthy planet.” Look beyond COP27, the impacts of climate change on biodiversity is also the topic of another COP, COP15 Part 2, on 7-19 December. At this COP – officially titled Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) – the parties will review the achievement and delivery of the CBD’s Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020. Did you know about…biodiversity and accounting for nature? Biodiversity is the variety of life on earth on which our societies and economies depend on it. It is rapidly rising up the corporate agenda as more and more companies understand the need to protect it. Every business relies on biodiversity, which, for businesses, means everything from clean air and water, fuel, food, raw materials, minerals, fibers, pollination of crops, climate regulation for a stable climate, and much more. For example, agribusiness relies on the diversity of wild relatives of major food crops, as a resource to ensure crop resistance to disease and pests. Business also rely on biodiversity for the wellbeing of their staff, their consumers, in their own operations and along their supply chains. Biodiversity is increasing in importance to business, and businesses will be expected to know about biodiversity action and to engage with it. They are also coming under increasing pressure to support protection of biodiversity. Biodiversity and Chartered Accountants Ireland On March 3, 2022, Chartered Accountants Ireland joined a profession-wide commitment to reverse nature loss. Working together as part of the Global Accounting Alliance (GAA), the CEOs of 10 of the world’s leading accountancy institutes signed the call to action ‘Nature is Everyone’s Business’ to signal the important role the profession plays in this crisis. You can find out more about biodiversity and natural capital and resources for accountants at the Chartered Accountants Ireland website’s Biodiversity - Accounting for Nature   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 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.  

  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.