COP 28 UPSC: A Comprehensive Guide in 2024

Recent Context

The 28th session of the The Conference of the Parties (COP), an annual convening of countries signatory to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – happened in Dubai this year, with high expectations that countries would take concrete steps to address the climate crisis. 

About COP

COPs are annual conferences that take place to discuss ways to address the climate crisis. One of the key part of COP meeting is review of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) submitted by member countries under Paris Agreement (2015). 

Outcomes of COP27 

Loss and Damage” Fund for Vulnerable Countries:

The United Nations Climate Change Conference COP27 signed an agreement to provide “loss and damage” funding to vulnerable countries.

Technology:

At COP27, a new five-year work program was launched to promote climate technology solutions in developing countries.

Mitigation:

A mitigation work programme was launched aimed at urgently scaling up mitigation ambition and implementation.

The work programme will start immediately following COP27 and continue until 2030, with at least two global dialogues held each year.

Governments were also requested to revisit and strengthen the 2030 targets in their national climate plans by the end of 2023, as well as accelerate efforts to phase down unabated coal power and phase-out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies.

Read a complete Guide on SCO here.

Key outcomes of COP28

India’s Role at COP28

India voiced the concerns of Global South and has time to time reiterated the urgency of making climate finance available to not only SIDS but also developing nations.

→ It co launched LeadIT2.0(Leadership group for Industry Transition) with Sweden. LeadIT2.0 will focus on inclusive and just industry transition, co-development and transfer of low carbon technology and financial support to emerging economies.

→ India (along With UAE) Co-hosted event on Green Credits Programme at COP28 which lead to launch of Global Green Credit Initiative.

→ India also participated in the Mangrove Alliance for Climate Ministerial Meeting which seeks to scale up, accelerate conservation, restoration and improve plantation efforts for Mangrove.

The UAE declaration on climate and health came into being at COP-28 through a partnership of the COP-28 Presidency with the World Health Organization. It recognises the growing health impacts of climate change and acknowledges the benefits of climate action, including a reduction in air pollution and lowering the cost of healthcare. The declaration, signed by 123 countries, has collectively committed $1 billion to address the growing climate-health crisis. However, India didn’t sign this declaration because reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the health sector would mean reduction in emissions from gases used for cooling. As India’s healthcare infrastructure is still growing, such a commitment could compromise the healthcare requirements of a growing population, particularly rural.

The Global Methane Pledge launched at COP-26 received renewed attention at COP-28, with the Climate and Clean Air Coalition becoming the new secretariat and partners of the pledge announcing more than $1 billion in new grants for funding projects to reduce methane emissions from the agriculture, waste, and gas sectors. More than 150 countries signed the pledge to reduce methane pollution. India isn’t a signatory to this pledge because it shifts focus from carbon dioxide to methane, a GHG with a lower lifetime.

What happened with respect to the loss and damage fund?

Loss and damage fund refers to compensation that rich industrialised Nations with historical role in climate change must pay to poor nations whose carbon footprint is low but are facing the brunt of climate change.

During COP-27, an agreement was reached to create a 

‘Loss and Damage’ (L&D) fund, the last year was dedicated to negotiations on fund-management and financing.

In a historic decision, the fund was operationalised at COP-28. However, only a meagre $790 million has been pledged so far, by a few nations, despite the corpus requiring $100 billion to more than $400 billion a year. Notably, the U.S., the largest historical emitter, committed only $17.5 million. 

Moreover, the World Bank was designated to oversee and administer the fund. But concerns originating from the experiences of developing countries with the World Bank related to questions about legal autonomy, flexibility, and decision-making authority, and general scepticism about the fund’s agility in responding promptly to emergencies, have emerged. There is also a prevailing sentiment among countries that the communities affected by climate-related disasters should be able to directly access funding, preferably in the form of grants and not loans.

What about the global stocktake? 

This year’s COP summit saw the first global stocktake (GST). According to the UNFCCC, the GST “enables countries and other stakeholders to see where they are collectively making progress towards meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement and where they are not”.

The decision of countries’ at COP-28 to transition away from fossil fuels was coupled with the ambition to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030. More than 20 countries also pledged to triple their nuclear energy capacity. However, the transition from fossil fuels is restricted to energy systems alone; they can continue to be used in the plastics, transport, and agriculture sectors. The declaration also refers to ‘transitional fuels’, such as natural gas, for ensuring energy security. But this falls short of true climate justice as it allows industries to continue operating in the business-as-usual mode.

Further, while the declaration called for accelerated climate mitigation, it alluded to unproven and risky technologies such as carbon capture and storage (CCS) and carbon removal. The former enables users of fossil fuels to prevent their emissions from entering the atmosphere by capturing the emissions at the source and storing them permanently underground.

What about green finance?

The financial segment of the GST implementation framework explicitly recognises the responsibility of developed nations to take the lead in climate finance. There is also a reference to the private sector’s role in addressing financial shortfalls and an imperative to supplement grant-oriented, concessional finance to enable equitable transition in developing countries. Nevertheless, specific information regarding the entities obligated to furnish this grant-based finance is lacking.

The COP-28 also witnessed the establishment of innovative global green-finance mechanisms to support developing nations in their transition to sustainable practices. The Green Climate Fund received fresh support of $3.5 billion, allowing it to finance adaptation and mitigation projects in vulnerable regions. An additional $188 million was pledged to the Adaptation Fund. New partnerships between public and private sectors were forged to mobilise investments in renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, and infrastructure. The COP-28 Presidency also introduced ALTÉRRA, an investment initiative with an ambitious goal to globally mobilise an unprecedented sum of $250 billion by 2030.

Despite these efforts, the available funds fall well short of the $194-366 billion annual funding requirement for adaptation, as estimated by the United Nations.

Challenges persisting in COP28 

However, some challenges and differences between developed and developing countries remain to be addressed along with other issues.

• Conflict between developed and developing nations:- One of the key issues of contention was fossil-fuel subsidies. While developed countries advocated for phasing them out, developing countries, including India, refused a phase-out over implications on economic growth and development. Such a phase-out also has social implications: several communities rely on fossil fuels (coal, in India’s case) for gainful employment. Moreover, emphasising the principle of common and differentiated responsibilities and the historical responsibility of developed countries for GHG emissions, developing countries argued for increasing the flow of climate finance and technologies to facilitate just job transitions and inclusive development.
• Rules on Global Carbon market: Countries failed to agree on rules for the global carbon market.

US tried to make regulations which were blocked by the EU, African Representatives and Latin America. 

• No focus on non-coal fossil fuel: COP28 focus only on phasing down of coal, ignoring other fossil fuels like oil and gas.
• Limited Climate finance: COP28 also failed to deliver a credible response to the challenge of dwindling fiscal space of developing countries due to the debt crisis.
• Greenwashing : Green washing is yet another important concern which may give a false image of positive climate action and results and in fact adversely impact climate and environment.

Way Forward

• Appropriate climate finance :- Developed Countries should not only commit but also act accordingly to contribute to developing countries for better climate action and coping.
• Building consensus – There is a need to address the gap between developed and developing nations and build consensus to better implement initiatives of COP28.
• More focus on research :- There’s a great need to invest in research and study the possible impact that geo-engineering technology like Carbon Capture utilisation and storage can pose.
• Legally Binding obligations – Alliances and conventions should be legally binding to put pressure on the countries to take apt actions.

Conclusion 

In sum, COP-28 is a mixed bag of outcomes. The commitment to ramp up renewable energy targets is a significant step forward – whereas issues on L&D metrics, fund management and disbursal market mechanisms, risky technologies, the room left for continued use of fossil fuels in many sectors, and natural gas as transitional fuel leave much to be desired.