Anticipation for COP27 is growing
From 6-18 November, all eyes will be on the intense negotiations at COP27 to review the world's progress in the fight against global warming. It's no doubt the biggest climate conference of the year and we're looking forward to meaningful discussions between world leaders, civil society, youth, academia, artists, and businesses to find inclusive solutions for the way forward.
The main outcome that the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) should produce is to translate ambition into action. Four areas, namely mitigation, adaptation, finance and collaboration are at the heart of the COP agenda.
This year’s COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh places a special focus on adaptation. As climate change progresses and its effects become more widespread and intense, it is vital to protect communities with adaptation measures. Droughts, heatwaves, floods and rising sea levels will affect everyone around the world, but in particular developing countries, who have contributed the least to global warming but bear the brunt of its impacts.
Climate change adaptation can involve measures such as building flood defenses, setting up early warning systems for hurricanes and cultivating drought-resistant crops. These are essential building blocks of the world’s long-term response to climate change for which concerted efforts are required.
Climeworks' expectations for COP27
In contrast to adaptation, mitigation measures like carbon dioxide removal (CDR) aim to reduce the effects of global warming. Though mitigation is not the main focus of this year’s COP, we’re looking forward to an impactful two weeks to see continued commitments for immediate actions from all parties, especially developed countries, to reduce and remove as many emissions as possible - confirming that CDR and DAC are an integral part of the mitigation strategies we need to keep global warming below 1.5°C.
Christoph Beuttler, Climeworks' Chief Climate Policy Officer
With the finalization of the Article 6 rulebook, Glasgow’s COP26 set the ground last year for an international carbon dioxide removal (CDR) market. I expect more progress to be made at this year’s COP27 in Egypt, but we need methodologies that clearly define what CDR is and these should accelerate credible CDR solutions that show high integrity via stringent monitoring, reporting and verification standards, with a special focus on the durability of stored carbon. At Climeworks, we offer permanent solutions and strive for the highest integrity of all CDR solutions. We will take this mindset with us to Egypt.
At the NYC Climate Week and the Economist Sustainability Week earlier this fall, we already witnessed growing excitement about direct air capture (DAC) and CDR. We saw an increasing number of people and partnerships drawn to the industry, addressing key topics for the CDR scale-up journey: clear standards in measuring, reporting and verification (MRV), the roles of the voluntary carbon market and compliance market in accelerating the deployment of DAC, as well as additional demand creation for CDR.
This is why we’re optimistic that COP27 will drive the CDR conversations even further – both in the official UN-managed “Blue Zone” and the “Green Zone”, where businesses, civil society, youth, academia and artists come together. Climeworks will be participating in a number of exciting events – join us!
Where to find us
Climeworks will be represented by our Chief Climate Policy Officer Christoph Beuttler, our Climate Policy Manager Louis Uzor as well as our Chief Marketing Officer Julie Gosalvez at COP27 – both in the Blue Zone and the Green Zone.
The highlights of their agendas include (timing of the sessions given in EET):
8 November
15:00-16:30: Louis will take part in the panel discussion "How certification can unlock the durable carbon removal opportunity in Africa", hosted in the IETA Pavilion in the Blue Zone.
17:00-18:00: Julie will participate in the panel discussion "The Decarbonization Journey: Levers for Progress and Scale" with representatives from Plan A and Macquarie Asset Management in the Climate Action Stage, powered by Kite Insights, in the Green Zone.
10 November
10:00-13:00: Climeworks will host a half-day event including a lunch & learn session at the pavilion of the Swiss Chamber of Egypt in the Green Zone. Come and meet us!
18:00-19:00: Christoph will speak at a session organized by the BMW Foundation and the Carbon Business Council on accelerating the carbon removal market, hosted in the UN Climate Change Global Innovation Hub in the Blue Zone.
19:00-20:30: our Climate Policy Team will take part in a pitching session organized by We Don't Have Time in the Nature pavilion in the Blue Zone.
12 November
15:00-16:30: our Climate Policy team will participate at a side-event in the Blue Zone about carbon credit trading under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, together with Perspectives.cc.
Climeworks' contributions to COP27 are still evolving – if you want to engage with Climeworks at COP27 and explore collaboration opportunities together, please reach out to us at [email protected].