#COP27 in Egypt: Possible Little less action, a lot of more talk ?

You probably know that Egypt is currently hosting the 27th session of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change aka COP27 and you probably following all the controversies following the COP this year which is to be expected.

A COP27 sunset "AFP"

Yes, it has been only 48 hours or actually 24 hours after the first day of the World Leaders Summit which the Egyptian Presidency called "The implementation summit” and there is a small victory which shows the true problem of COPs: This year the activists and global south governments from developing countries managed to include “Loss and damage” onto the agenda of the COP27.

Loss and damage term is used within the  UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to refer to the harms and damages caused by climate change and as the global south from developing countries and island nations are most harmed by climate change, they depend on climate reparation and climate justice from the global north.

Including it on the COP27’s agenda is called by environmentalists a “historic moment” when in the real world, it is meant that it will be discussed in the agenda and God only knows how the response to loss and damage will be determined without angering the Global north.

Island nations have been trying to include this important issue in the COP’s agenda for nearly 30 years. The United States and EU stood against adding it to the agenda in COP26. Yes, it took 30 years to recognize its importance and from what I understand it was a long discussion that continued till the early hours of Monday to include it. 

This is what I mean by the true problem of COPs, 30 years to recognize something we all already know. 

I am not trying to rush in but in general, as a citizen in this world, I know that COPs are more of talking forums than true action places. I know that it is the biggest place for governments and companies that have been polluting the world for decades to greenwash themselves.

I know it is the place where the rich global north shows off in front of the poor global south and the global south demands deserved support but gets none for real.

I know that annually we, as citizens of the world, listen and read about shocking data shared and released during the COP, but nothing happens in the real world.

On the other hand, annually, climate change is felt more and more whether in scorching summers melting the North Pole or devastating floods like the one that drowned nearly 1/3 of Pakistan due to the melting of the Himalayas.

Speaking about electric vehicles when cars are a luxury for billions of people in the global south is just another part of the COPs problem.

 Needless to say, those billions do not own a car and actually use bicycles as their main means of transportation and got very little emission impact compared to one single family like the Kardashians in the North.

We are still at the beginning of COP27. Hopefully, Mother earth will not be defeated yet inshallah.