In November 2022, the Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt will host the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP 27), with a view to building on previous successes and paving the way for future ambition to effectively tackle the global challenge of climate change.
The hosting of COP27 in the green city of Sharm El-Sheikh this year marks the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Nationally determined contributions (NDCs) are at the heart of the Paris Agreement and the achievement of its long-term goals.
NDCs embody efforts by each country to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. The Paris Agreement (Article 4, paragraph 2) requires each Party to prepare, communicate and maintain successive nationally determined contributions (NDCs) that it intends to achieve. Parties shall pursue domestic mitigation measures, with the aim of achieving the objectives of such contributions.
The Paris Agreement requests each country to outline and communicate their post-2020 climate actions, known as their NDCs.
Together, these climate actions determine whether the world achieves the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement and to reach global peaking of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as soon as possible and to undertake rapid reductions thereafter in accordance with best available science, so as to achieve a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of GHGs in the second half of this century.
It is understood that the peaking of emissions will take longer for developing country Parties, and that emission reductions are undertaken on the basis of equity, and in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty, which are critical development priorities for many developing countries.
The Paris Agreement recognizes that the long-term goals will be achieved through time and, therefore, builds on a ratcheting up of aggregate and individual ambition over time.
NDCs are submitted every five years to the UNFCCC secretariat. In order to enhance the ambition over time the Paris Agreement provide that successive NDCs will represent a progression compared to the previous NDC and reflect its highest possible ambition.
Parties are requested to submit the next round of NDCs (new NDCs or updated NDCs) by 2020 and every five years thereafter (e.g. by 2020, 2025, 2030), regardless of their respective implementation time frames.
Moreover, Parties may at any time adjust their existing nationally determined contribution with a view to enhancing its level of ambition
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) established an international environmental treaty to combat "dangerous human interference with the climate system", in part by stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.
It was signed by 154 states at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), informally known as the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro from 3 to 14 June 1992. It established a Secretariat headquartered in Bonn, Germany, and entered into force on 21 March 1994
The Kyoto Protocol, which was signed in 1997 and ran from 2005 to 2020, was the first implementation of measures under the UNFCCC. The Kyoto Protocol was superseded by the Paris Agreement, which entered into force in 2016. By 2022 the UNFCCC had 198 parties. Its supreme decision-making body, the Conference of the Parties (COP), meets annually to assess progress in dealing with climate change.
United States held back from ratifying the UNFCCC's most important agreement—the Kyoto Protocol—in large part because the treaty did not cover developing countries which now include the largest CO2 emitters.
Japan stated that it will not sign up to a second Kyoto term, because it would impose restrictions on it not faced by its main economic competitors, China, India and Indonesia
UNFCCC (mainly during the Kyoto protocol) failed to facilitate the transfer of environmentally sound technologies (SETs) which are mechanisms used to decrease the vulnerability of the human race against the unfavourable effects of climate change
Because key signatory states are not adhering to their individual commitments, the UNFCCC has been criticized as being unsuccessful in reducing the emission of carbon dioxide since its adoption.
The UNFCCC secretariat (UN Climate Change) is the United Nations entity tasked with supporting the global response to the threat of climate change. UNFCCC stands for United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The Convention has near universal membership (198 Parties) and is the parent treaty of the 2015 Paris Agreement. The main aim of the Paris Agreement is to keep the global average temperature rise this century as close as possible to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
The UNFCCC is also the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The ultimate objective of all three agreements under the UNFCCC is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system, in a time frame which allows ecosystems to adapt naturally and enables sustainable development.
The secretariat was established in 1992 when countries adopted the UNFCCC. The original secretariat was in Geneva. Since 1996, the secretariat has been located in Bonn, Germany.
At the head of the secretariat is the Executive Secretary
Developing countries require substantive enhancement in climate finance from the floor of $100 billion per year to meet their ambitious goals and rich countries need to lead the mobilisation of resources, India has stressed at the ongoing UN climate summit COP27.
At COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009, developed countries had committed to jointly mobilise $100 billion per year by 2020 to help developing countries tackle the effects of climate change. Rich countries, however, have repeatedly failed in delivering this finance.
Developing countries, including India, are pushing rich countries to agree to a new global climate finance target -- also known as the new collective quantified goal on climate finance (NCQG) -- which they say should be in trillions as the costs of addressing and adapting to climate change have grown.
At a high-level ministerial dialogue on NCQG at COP27 on Wednesday, India highlighted that climate actions to meet the NDC targets require financial, technological, and capacity-building support from developed countries, people aware of the developments said.
"The ambitious goal set down by the developing countries requires substantive enhancement in climate finance from the floor of $100 billion per year. The mobilisation of the resource needs to be led by the developed countries and should be long-term, concessional, and climate-specific with equitable allocation between adaptation and mitigation projects," the Indian delegation said during the meeting.
"The commitment of $100 billion made in 2009 by developed countries, was not only miniscule given the scale of needs, but has also not been achieved yet," it said.
According to data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an intergovernmental body consisting of wealthy nations, developed countries mobilised $52.5 billion in 2013.
After dropping to $44.6 billion in 2015, the finance flow has steadily increased. In 2020, the developed countries raised $83.3 billion, a jump from $80.4 billion in 2019, according to a factsheet published by the Centre for Science and Environment.
The Standing Committee on Finance has estimated that resources in the range of $6 trillion to $11 trillion are required till 2030 to meet the targets set by developing countries in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and other communications including the Needs Determination Reports.
NDCs are national plans to limit global temperature rise to well below two degrees Celsius, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
"Clearly, the need for climate finance is immense even when estimates have not completely captured the identified needs, especially that for adaptation," the Indian side said.
At this year's conference being held in the Egyptian seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh from November 6 to 18, developed countries are expected to push developing nations to further intensify their climate plans.
On the other hand, the developing countries would seek commitment to finance and technology needed to address climate change and resulting disasters.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) produces reports roughly every five years that represent global scientific consensus on climate change, its causes and its impact. Last year's report tackled the main drivers of global warming and the core elements of climate science.
For the first time, the report's authors called for urgent action to curb methane. Until now, the IPCC had focused on carbon dioxide, the most abundant greenhouse gas.
he daunting forecast for the world's poor reignited calls for a "Loss and Damage" fund through which rich nations would compensate for costs incurred by poor countries from climate-related disasters.