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.
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