COP27: Has the world wasted a year fighting the climate crisis since COP26?

Despite COP26 aiming to keep efforts to limit global warming to 1.5C, the UN warned last week that the world is on track for 2.4C to 2.6C of warming and climate disaster.

The UN Environment Programme found that based on countries’ current plans to tackle emissions, there is no credible pathway in place to limit temperature rises to 1.5C, despite the pledges made in Glasgow last year.

The Glasgow Climate Pact watered down a commitment on phasing out coal – but insiders claimed a victory with the first mention at any COP event of reducing fossil fuel use.

COP26 allowed governments to make big commitments on reducing methane emissions, planting of trees and finance. But pledges have not been matched with action – funding being a key sticking point between the global south and developing nations.

A pledge to cut methane emissions by 30 per cent by 2030 was agreed at COP26, but excluded China, Russia and India.

Questions have been raised over the UK’s action on methane after a new report from the Green Alliance think tank found that more action is needed by Tory ministers, with a 43% reduction possible this decade with a series of low-cost policies.

Mr Sharma, who will hand over the presidency to Egypt, warned on Thursday that the “stark warnings keep coming” on climate change, as he appealed to world leaders to pick up the pace.

He acknowledged that the Russian invasion of Ukraine had reduced the focus on climate change this year, including the UK Government which is expanding fossil fuels production.

But Mr Sharma starkly admitted that nations “need to be able to do more than one thing at a time”.

Mr Sharma was visibly upset when developing nations, particularly India, watered down the climate pact at COP26 from “phasing out” to “phasing down” coal.

That weakened agreement is the headline legacy left behind by COP26, one year on.

Despite US climate envoy John Kerry insisting COP26 was the as "last best hope for the world to get its act together” on climate change, a Scottish-based climate expert has insisted that global food, water and energy supplies remain vulnerable to a warming planet.

Dr Simon Cook, geoscientist at the University of Dundee, has pointed the finger at world leaders unable to use the Glasgow event to agree on emissions targets sufficiently capable of addressing the climate crisis.

Having witnessed the impact of climate change on the world’s glaciers first-hand, Dr Cook has warned governments to reject high-polluting, short-term solutions that jeopardise future generations to ease present day political woes.

He said: “The COP26 summit was billed as ‘make or break’ in terms of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees and in that respect it probably failed.

“Perhaps one of the most disappointing aspects was the choice of words around coal-fired power, where a last-minute intervention led to a watering down from ‘phasing out’ of coal to ‘phasing down’, which is a much weaker expression of intent.”

Dr Cook said that the past 12 months had provided politicians with plenty of reminders as to why action is urgently required at COP27.

He said: “As we reflect on another year since COP26, the urgency for action on climate is unfortunately all too real.

“Recent floods in Pakistan, which covered 10% of the country, a prolonged heatwave in across Europe and a very rare glacier collapse in the Italian Alps are just some of the indicators that our climate is becoming ever more extreme.

“As the world warms, these sorts of events will become more extreme, threatening our food and water supplies, and energy security further.”

The UK Government played a key leadership role at COP26 s host nation.

But Tory ministers have received criticism from COP27 host Egypt over "backtracking from the global climate agenda".

The UK Government has also angered climate activists for its climate policies since the Glasgow summit including opening up the North Sea for oil and gas expansion despite severe warnings from the UN over new fossil fuels projects.

Despite the warm words from global leaders on the banks of the Clyde 12 months ago, campaigners are calling for urgent and immediate action to implement pledges on the ground.

WWF Scotland has insisted that COP27 must lay the groundwork for increasingly ambitious emissions reduction goals for 2035 as well as for 2030, in line with science.

The organisation is demanding strengthened climate adaptation and resilience through national, regional and local adaptation programs.

And crucially, campaigners are demanding that world leaders meet and exceed the US$100 billion climate finance objective from developed countries this year and exceed it in coming years to compensate for past shortfalls.

WWF Scotland director, Lang Banks, said: “We left Glasgow with commitments that kept 1.5C within reach, but only just.

“Sadly, there has been very limited progress of note since COP26. A huge gap remains between what is needed, what countries have promised, and what is happening in terms of reducing emissions, building resilience, and providing support for low-income countries.

“Climate finance remains stuck in limbo. Even as the demand for financial support to enable countries to adapt to climate disasters grows, funding is only trickling in.

“COP27 is happening in a country and on a continent at the frontline of the climate crisis. When world leaders gather in Egypt, they must bring with them the proof that they have moved on from promises to real world delivery.”

Mary Church, Friends of the Earth Scotland’s head of campaigns, warned that “COP26 failed to deliver the climate action that the world needs”.

She added: "The claims the UK presidency made in Glasgow have rung hollow over the past year with the Government rushing to open new oil and gas fields, embracing the fracking industry and still swithering over opening a new coal mine in Cumbria.

“By pushing new fossil fuels the rhetoric of climate leadership is exposed as a cover for climate change denial.

"Extreme weather on every continent is endangering millions through hunger in East Africa, catastrophic floods in Pakistan and deadly heat waves we felt across Europe. Yet rich nations who are the architects of this crisis still refuse to come to the UN talks ready to do their fair share of action.

"To have any chance of avoiding truly catastrophic warming, countries who became wealthy off the back of polluting fossil fuels must commit to urgently ending their use and bringing down emissions. Rich countries must also pay their climate debt for the harm wreaked in countries who have done the least to cause the crisis but are on the sharpest ends of impacts.”

Nicola Sturgeon will attend the UN talks, which begin in Sharm El-Sheikh today.

Despite Scotland not being a full member at COP27, the First Minister has vowed to do what she can “to further collaboration between Scotland and other countries to build upon the agreements that were made in Glasgow” at last year’s climate talks.

Ms Sturgeon said: “If the world is to deliver on the Glasgow Climate Pact, all nations need to continue to increase that ambition and take credible action to reach net-zero emissions."

“Over the next few days, I will attend COP27 to do what I can to further collaboration between Scotland and other countries to build upon the agreements that were made in Glasgow and to continue Scotland’s leadership, not least on the issue of loss and damage.”

Scotland has led the way on loss and damage, essentially reparations to global south nations for climate breakdown caused by developing nations.

At COP26, the Scottish Government pledged £2m of loss and damage, and earlier this year, Denmark became the first nation state to do so – with the global south keen for loss and damage to be a key discussion point at COP27.

The Herald revealed last month that the Scottish Government will hand over a dossier of evidence on loss and damage at COP27 after hosting its own summit on the issue last month.

The First Minister is expected to take part in discussions over financing decarbonisation after The Herald revealed Ms Sturgeon was in talks with the City of London to fund Scotland’s net zero strategy.

Finance will be a major flash point at COP27. Despite previous pledges of funding to be handed over not being followed through.

Rich nations including the United States remain nervous about loss and damage payments.

Finance day will be a key part of the COP27 talks with organisers billing the issue as the "cornerstone for implementing climate actions and scaling up ambition".

Inger Andersen, the executive director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), said: “We had our chance to make incremental changes, but that time is over. Only a root-and-branch transformation of our economies and societies can save us from accelerating climate disaster.

“It is a tall, and some would say impossible, order to reform the global economy and almost halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, but we must try.

“Every fraction of a degree matters: to vulnerable communities, to ecosystems, and to every one of us.”