We all know the climate crisis is urgent – but while progress is accelerating, we need more certainty and ambition to enable governments, businesses and society as a whole to have a true climate impact.
COP27 is a pivotal moment on this journey, and government leaders from all corners of the globe must now come together and agree on how to implement the Paris climate agreement in very practical terms. This is critical in order to step up the pace of decarbonising all sectors of the global economy and to limit average global temperature rise to 1.5C – the figure climate scientists define as the threshold of safety.
Read on to find out what our team will be doing on the ground in Sharm el-Sheikh for COP27 and for our experts' views on the most pressing issues leading the discussions.
Countries coming together to keep warming below 1.5 degrees.
COP27 will be a critical test for how world leaders can respond to the increasing urgency of climate change.
Before we jump into COP27, let’s recap on what happened at COP26 in Glasgow:
Article 6 defines the rules of engagement in international compliance carbon markets under the Paris Agreement.
The focus of COP27 will be on implementation, which requires national action.
Having spent the past 12 years working in the voluntary carbon market, compliance carbon markets, climate policy and thought leadership, Marco brings unrivalled knowledge to the role of Executive Director, Climate Certificates. With practical experience in carbon project development, implementation and trading, Marco is passionate about placing innovation and partnership at the heart of our certificates business. This ethos provides South Pole's global network of partners and clients with a vehicle to boldly speed towards a prosperous, low-carbon future.
His work has taken him to Canada, the United States, Belgium, Turkey, India, Switzerland and the UK, where he lives today.
Patrick Buergi is a sustainability entrepreneur and expert with twenty years of experience in carbon markets, climate policy, corporate sustainability and impact investing. He is a co-founder of both the myclimate Foundation in 2002 and South Pole in 2006.
In mid 2022, Patrick relocated to Tokyo to lead the establishment of South Pole's presence in Japan. In addition, Patrick also acts as a Senior Innovation Advisor within South Pole working across a portfolio of innovation and R&D initiatives, including Net Zero strategies, carbon removals, regenerative agriculture, plastic stewardship and digital growth opportunities, for example.
Christoph is one of the Co-Founders of South Pole and Board Director. As member of South Pole's Board, he drives many strategic topics of the company.
Christoph is Member of the Stewards Circle of the B For Good Leaders Network.
In his earlier career, Christoph worked for over 12 years at McKinsey, where he was responsible for sustainability and energy-related topics, such as the Review of EU Emissions Trading Scheme for the EU Commission.
Christoph holds an MSc in Mechanical Engineering from Karlsruhe University, an MSc in Energy Management & Policy from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and IFP School, Paris, and a Ph.D. in Economics in the field of Energy from Oldenburg University. His studies also included extensive internships in France and South Africa.
Philip Moss is the Chairman of the NextGen CDR Facility, the world's largest diversified portfolio of certified carbon removals powered by Mitsubishi Corporation and South Pole, which plans to purchase 1MM tonnes of CDRs by 2025 on behalf of a growing list of buyers including Boston Consulting Group, LGT Group, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Swiss Re and UBS.
Philip is a leading authority on establishing new sustainability-linked markets, with particular focus on the use of innovative financing to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While at the World Economic Forum (WEF), Philip pioneered the concept of "blended finance", establishing a +$150 billion market and the Convergence network, while leading the SDIP alliance of 42 leading governments, development finance institutions and investors to mobilize sustainable private investment in developing and emerging markets.
Prior to joining WEF, Philip gained extensive experience in both the carbon and cleantech markets as Managing Partner for Mana Ventures, an Abu Dhabi-based cleantech investment advisory firm and as the Carbon Portfolio Manager for Masdar, where he managed the largest carbon portfolio in the MENA region. Philip founded the Blended Finance Group and has also held senior positions with 17 Asset Management, the Zayed Future Energy Prize, and the UNEP Finance Initiative.
Do you have questions on climate policy and/or how that will affect your business?
A mysterious title which gives its name to the annual summit during which all countries that signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1994 come together to review or update the implementation of any legal instruments, pledges, or market mechanisms necessary to keep warming below 1.5 °C.
The first legally-binding global treaty on climate change, the Paris Agreement, was agreed at COP21 in Paris in 2015. Since 2015, under the Paris Agreement, almost all countries in the world have committed to reigning in global average temperature rise to no more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, and strengthen everyone's ability to adapt and build resilience to the growing effects of climate change.
Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) are a key feature of the Paris agreement and will be an important subject for discussion at COP27. NDCs are a type of pledge: they represent the climate actions that countries will take to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and limit global warming to 1.5°C. As current pledges are insufficient, more ambitious pledges – accompanied by actual policies and actions to drive measurable impact – are urgently needed.
In order to achieve (or exceed!) these national climate commitments, countries can voluntarily cooperate with each other using the mechanisms defined under Article 6 of the Paris agreement (see below to understand what this means). Discussing how this should work will form another key point of discussion in Sharm el-Sheikh.
According to the world's leading scientific authority, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the global community is still woefully off track when it comes to curbing climate change. The IPCC has stated that for us to have a fighting chance of limiting warming to 1.5°C, global emissions must halve by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050. This gives us less than a decade to complete a fundamental systems change at a pace and scale never seen before.
The IPCC has also made it very clear that we are now in very dangerous territory, and even the smallest delay will move us closer to irreversible planetary tipping points.
COP27 is a unique opportunity for leaders, observers, and local communities to come together, and make decisions on how to deal with this challenge that is affecting all of humanity. This is why countries have been called to revise their national climate commitments ahead of the conference, and make them as ambitious as possible.
This included commitments to curb methane emissions; halt and reverse deforestation; align the financial sector with net zero by 2050, and end international financing for fossil fuels, to name just a few. More on private sector pledges here.
Article 6 is designed to enable the rapid implementation of international carbon markets to help countries achieve their NDCs and increase climate ambition. Article 6 covers government-to-government and government-to-private sector markets, and is a central pillar in the implementation of the Paris Agreement.
To dive deeper into the outcomes of COP26, you can listen to our webinar here.
It recognises that countries can – and should – cooperate to meet their national climate targets. As some countries emit more than others, while other countries emit less, the purpose of Article 6 is to create an international carbon market where countries that can achieve emission reductions at a lower cost, can then sell these “mitigation outcomes" to the countries that face much higher costs to reduce their emissions. Here are some examples of Article 6 pilot projects in action.
Another factor that makes Article 6 uniquely important is that it tries to harness the power of the private sector in order to create the total transformation needed to lower global emissions. The billions of investible public and private sector dollars out there must be urgently channelled towards decarbonisation projects, new climate technologies, and radical innovations in climate adaptation and mitigation.
At COP27, we can expect to see more discussion around what the implementation of Article 6 should look like, what shape the collaboration between the voluntary carbon markets and NDCs will take, and what systems need to be put in place to enable a robust international carbon market that works for everyone.
Image: Armando Babani / AFP
With its strapline, “Together for implementation", COP27 is being promoted as the “African COP" in reference to its location in Egypt, but also given the expectation that African countries' exposure to some of the most adverse effects of climate change will be front and centre in the negotiations.
To quote veteran COP negotiator Jonathan Pershing, “this [COP] is no longer about what the global community agrees; it's [about] how the global community working together can advance national agendas".
In other words, contrary to previous COPs, there is no single negotiation outcome that participants will be seeking this year – the Article 6 rulebook has been finalised, and global targets have been negotiated. Instead, the focus of COP27 will very much be on implementation, which requires national action.
It is expected, therefore, that COP27 meeting agendas will put an increased emphasis on actions by individual countries, and that these discussions will be joined by a predominant focus on climate finance – as a critical tool for delivering national action and adaptation measures, especially in emerging economies, including several African nations. Vulnerable countries have long been calling for support in adapting to a changing climate. Following yet another summer of extreme weather, where no country has been spared, the urgency of climate adaptation has become increasingly obvious to all.
COP27 will also feature a reality check. Back in Paris at COP21, nations agreed that there should be a regular review of global climate action, which would help set the scene and inform the future rounds of upping NDCs' ambition. This 'global stocktake' will be a reality check for the global community as it will measure where exactly the world stands on progress towards limiting warming to 1.5°C, adapting to climate change, and the means to implement actions.
At South Pole, we will be closely following the discussions on Article 6, nature-based solutions and adaptation, and climate innovations such as technological carbon removals and future fuels. Stay tuned!
