A key decision adopted by the Parties at COP27 emphasizes the need to address systematic observation gaps, including in mountain regions and concerning the cryosphere.

Delegates gathered against an ominous backdrop of multiple crises: energy, cost of living, indebtedness, nature loss, and geopolitical tensions among major powers. But the need to act in the face of the climate crisis has never been clearer. Global average temperature rise is already 1.1°C. People around the world are experiencing the effects of climate change, from heatwaves and droughts to floods and superstorms. Only the wealthiest countries can (so far) cope. As Sherry Rehman, Minister of Climate Change, Pakistan, implored “Vulnerability shouldn’t be a death sentence.”

The need to protect the most vulnerable led to a historic decision at the Sharm El-Sheikh Climate Change Conference, after a hard political bargain was struck across significant areas of climate action. For the first time, countries agreed to recognize the need for finance to respond to loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change, and quickly established a fund and the necessary funding arrangements, with the details to be worked out over the coming year.

“The Critical Decade” to Scale up Mitigation and Adaptation Efforts

Other key elements of this package were the work programmes on urgently scaling up mitigation ambition and the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA). On mitigation, developed and climate-vulnerable countries pushed for a strong outcome to ramp up efforts to reduce emissions before 2030, calling this “the critical decade.” In the end, countries agreed to a process that will explore topics, which are to be decided, and identify opportunities and gaps to reduce emissions.  Several countries expressed some worry that the mitigation outcome may not be enough to “keep 1.5°C alive.”

On the GGA, countries were more pleased with the outcome. Parties agreed to a long-term, structured effort that will help countries to collectively achieve the global adaptation goal. This framework will also review progress towards its achievement. Given the context-specific nature of adaptation, that countries will have to adapt to different climate impacts, this framework will generate information that can help to enable and capture progress. It will be reviewed before the second Global Stocktake in 2028.

Parties also adopted two overarching cover decisions, together called the Sharm El-Sheikh Implementation Plan. Both decisions address science, energy, mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage, finance, and pathways to a just transition. Some highlights include:

• retaining the call to phase down unabated coal power and phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies, as adopted in the 2021 Glasgow Climate Pact (Decisions 1/CP26 and 1/CMA.3);
• urging parties that have not yet communicated new or updated nationally determined contributions (NDCs) or long-term low greenhouse gas (GHG) development strategies to do so by the next meeting;
• establishing a work programme on just transition to discuss pathways to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement;
• launching the Sharm El-Sheikh dialogue to enhance understanding of the scope of Article 2.1(c) of the Paris Agreement (ensuring finance flows are consistent with low-GHG, climate-resilient development), and its complementarity with Article 9 of the Paris Agreement (climate finance);
• urging developed countries to provide enhanced support to assist developing countries to both mitigate and adapt, and encouraging other parties to provide or continue to provide such support voluntarily; and
• calling for multilateral development bank reform, including in their practices and priorities and to define a new vision, operational models, channels, and instruments that are fit for adequately addressing the global climate emergency.

The meeting also featured the Sharm El-Sheikh Implementation Summit, where over 100 Heads of State and Government attended. By the end of the meeting, which concluded on 20 November, more than 39 hours after the scheduled close, parties had adopted 60 decisions.

Significant Step for Mountains

A key decision adopted by the Parties at COP27 emphasizes the need to address systematic observation gaps, including in mountain regions and concerning the cryosphere. This development is a great testament to the efforts of many individuals and institutions, including from across the mountain research community, who have helped to substantiate these observation and associated knowledge gaps, for instance in recent IPCC assessment reports.

"The MRI welcomes the calls made at COP27 associated with this decision to enhance the coordination of activities of the systematic observation community, and to improve our collective ability to provide useful and actionable data and information – crucial goals towards which the MRI are continually striving." - Dr Carolina Adler, MRI Executive Director and Co-Lead Author of the IPCC Working Group Two (WGII)'s Cross-Chapter Paper on Mountains.

Watch the video "What is Climate Resilient Development?", a key topic addressed in Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The video was produced as part of a project mandate financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and implemented by the MRI and partners Helvetas, ICIMOD, and the University of Zurich .

A number of mountain-themed events took place during COP 27 which provided advocacy and focus on mountain issues.

The Sharm El-Sheikh Climate Change Conference convened in Egypt from 6-20 November 2022. The Conference included the:

• 27th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 27);
• 4th meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA 4);
• 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 17);
• 57th meeting of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI 57); and
• 57th meeting of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA 57)

In total, 33,449 people attended, including 16,118 delegates from parties, 13,981 observers, and 3,350 members of the media.

This article was first published by the IISD Earth Negotiations Bulletin. You can view the original summary report on the IISD Earth Negotiations Bulletin website.

Cover image by Matthew TenBruggencate