A key task on the COP27 agenda was to finalise the details of a work program designed to scale up the ambition and implementation of emissions mitigation pledges. The work program was a key part of the Glasgow Climate Pact which came out of COP26 and formalised the efforts to keep warming under 1.5⁰C. Ambition, in this context, refers to the level of cuts to emissions that countries have promised in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Implementation refers to turning those NDCs into results.
The Glasgow Climate Pact asked countries to revisit and strengthen their reduction commitments by the end of 2022, thus building increased ambition into mitigation work program itself. As of the 18 November this year, however, only 29 countries had updated their NDCs, according to analysis by Climate Action Tracker.
How did it pan out?
The initial draft text included an unprecedented amount of bracketed text – indicating the wording or sentiments were not agreed upon. The negotiations reflected the sustained tension between developed and developing nations about responsibility and capability, which we have seemed permeate many facets of climate negotiations.
Overall, commentators agree that the mitigation work program falls short of the ambition of developed countries to accelerate action. The text rules out the process of imposing any new targets or goals, and stresses that the programme will be “non-prescriptive” and “non-punitive”, meaning countries will not be bound by anyone to do anything, as they are allowed to determine their own contributions. The text does not ask for stronger pledges than it did in the Glasgow Climate Pact, despite the IPCC warning that emissions must peak by 2025 at the latest to keep warming below 1.5C. It also doesn’t link formalise any link with pledges made in Glasgow, meaning there’s no official way to “check homework” and determine whether countries are implementing their stated ambitions.
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