You often hear about the meetings called "COP." Essentially, it is an abbreviation for the English phrase "Conference of Parties." It means a platform where developments in an international agreement are discussed by the comprising parties, stakeholders and interlocutors of an important subject and field.

The last one, COP27, was attended by representatives of states, including Türkiye. All of the states that attended are members of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Likewise, accredited, globally recognized experts in the field of climate change also participated. COP27 was held in early November in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, with the participation of 194 countries. COP27, which took place in the shadows of the global energy, food supply crises and aftershocks of the Russia-Ukraine war, concluded without making sufficient progress in the negotiations on greenhouse gas reduction.

However, the most crucial positive outcome of COP27 was the landmark climate damages fund deal to provide a "loss and damage financing" mechanism for vulnerable countries most affected by climate disasters such as severe drought and natural disasters caused by global climate change. The establishment of a "climate financing mechanism" for projects and steps will eliminate the main and after-effects caused by climate change. It will also create a high-level working group for the formation of innovative ideas for financing. This development made many underdeveloped countries that need financial support, especially Africa, quite delighted.

As a matter of fact, Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley censured oil and natural gas companies, which have earned $200 billion in the last three months due to the effect of the ongoing war in Ukraine. Since they did not transfer money to the "climate change loss-damage fund," Mottley emphasized that they should move 10% of their earnings to the "loss and damage fund."

Serious discussions

Considering the global energy supply crisis, serious discussions have arisen on topics such as the exit from coal, making the 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) target reachable and the greenhouse gas reaching their global peak of emissions in 2025. However, the outcomes could not go beyond the decisions taken at the COP26 meeting in Scotland’s Glasgow in 2021.

This means that the decisions in this year's COP27 meeting did not advance further than the gradual reduction of coal use and the call for an end to ineffective fossil fuel subsidies.

As a matter of fact, due to the prolongation of the negotiations of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Working Group, the summit that was supposed to end on Nov. 18 could only be completed on Nov. 20. Further steps could have been taken to reduce the use of fossil fuels and to speed up the use of renewable energy with investments.

One of the most important results of COP27 is the concrete decision to hold a climate change finance summit, where the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank are particularly expected to produce concrete solutions, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in June, before COP28, which will be held in Abu Dhabi.

COP28

Meanwhile, the most important element of COP28 is the process to measure the "state of the world in combating climate change" – included in the 14th article of the Paris Climate Agreement as the "Global Situation Assessment" (Global Stocktake), which was started in May 2021. At COP28, a global situation assessment and country performance inventory will be published.

The critical point here is whether the global inventory will be published without targeting a country or a group of countries. Because, the main decision made in the Paris Agreement was to make a collective assessment and not to criticize or blame anyone directly (no name, no shame).

Türkiye, on the other hand, was among the rare countries that showed its assertive stance at COP27 by clearly declaring that it would reach a peak in carbon emissions by 2038 at the latest and with its climate law. We also stated that we aspire to host the 2026 COP31. It will be meaningful to be a candidate for COP31 for Türkiye – which aims to reduce emissions by 500 million tons by 2031.