Energy Day at COP27, UNFCCC, Egypt

UN COP27 event on 15th November “Energy Day”, 2022 involved the minister's high-level roundtable on the pre-2030 target, with a reason to urgently ramp up climate support and action. Roundtable is a new annual event for setting up climate change reduction and its implementation ambition, which needs to be taken before the end of 2030.

 This meeting was conducted because of a UN climate change stark report, according to which the world is too off track to stay below the 1.5-degree Celsius temperature goals set by the Paris Agreement. The report highlighted that implementation of pledges that are currently made by national governments would still increase emissions by 10.6 percent by the end of 2030 but will put the world on track for a 2.5-degree Celsius target by the century's end.

The UN Climate Change Executive Secretary said that “The world is making efforts to bring down the emissions of heat-trapping gasses, but the efforts remain insufficient to keep the global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius.

As per the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel for climate change, greenhouse gas emissions can reach a peak before 2025 and then must decline by 43 percent by 2030 to limit the temperature rise. Simon stiel put forward an ambitious work program for mitigation at cop27 that can reduce emissions fast, facilitate impactful action, and secure assurances from certain important countries, to keep us on track for the 1.5°C targets.

The decision of the conference on the mitigation work program is about, every party supporting and understanding the seriousness of threats we are facing, reflecting the urgency level, and we are short of time to avoid the devastating consequences of climate change.

Jim Skea brought a sense of hope at the roundtable that there are solutions in every sector, which can be brought into action immediately to bring control over these situations.

IPCC quoted that these mitigation solutions have the potential to reduce emissions by half from 2019 levels to 2030 levels, in less than 100$ per tonne of C02 equivalent.

Skea, while pointing to the huge potential in the energy sector, said that the costs of solar and wind energy have dropped significantly in recent years. He even highlighted the vast potential of reduction in emissions in land use and forestry, agriculture, ecosystem restoration, and better soil management.

Government ministers in the roundtable discussion agreed and made a collective call to achieve the ambition, and many developing countries asked for the need for support and financial funds. Ministers agreed that 1.5 degree Celsius is the line we cannot cross.