COP27 Outcomes: DIRCO briefing; with Deputy Minister

Meeting report

COP27 outcomes: DIRCO briefing

Deputy Minister's overview

President Cyril Ramaphosa had an opportunity to present at the implementation summit session, which was hosted by Egypt’s President. He was supported by DIRCO’s Minister and the Minister of  Forestry, Fisheries and Environment (DFFE). President Ramaphosa was also selected by the United Nations Secretary and the Egyptian President co-chair with the European Union (EU) President the summit on just transitions. This platform was useful for key decision-makers to meet and discuss common experiences. President Ramaphosa spoke on the need for international support for South Africa’s just transition framework for sustainable livelihoods, ensuring no one got left behind.

President Ramaphosa delivered South Africa’s national statement and convened a side event, together with leaders from Germany, France, Britain, the EU and the USA, on the just energy transition partnership investment plans. The first two contributions came from France and Germany, and that represented half a billion dollars in highly concessional loans. The agreements had already been signed before this meeting.

After the summit, DFFE Minister Barbara Creecy led the high-stakeholder engagement negotiations which lasted for two weeks. DIRCO and the Embassy in Cairo had supported the Minister, and had also supported business opportunities linked with green economy deals. Minister Creecy had been appointed by the COP27 President to facilitate negotiations on mitigations and work programmes, which was one of the most contested items on the agenda.

DIRCO Deputy Minister Alvin Botes said that South Africa regarded COP27 as broadly successful, as it had moved the world forward since COP26 in Glasgow. The international community remained committed to addressing the existential crisis and challenges of climate change. The agreement from Glasgow, limiting the rise of the earth’s temperature to 1.5 degrees, remained alive and COP27 was able to reach progressive agreements in a tense geopolitical environment, where leaders were at loggerheads on how to solve the issues.

COP27 had provided significant political messaging across all regions on the need for transformation of financial architecture to assist with just energy transitions.

Deputy Minister Botes said COP27 was of key strategic value, as important agreements were reached, and it had built on the G20 summit. If multinational development banks responded to the COP27 outcomes, it would enable transformation and many countries would be able to meet COP27 outcomes sooner, and countries would be able to finance green energy economies.

The summit also provided political momentum and guidance to reach agreements. A new multinational fund would be created to assist developing countries in responding to damage caused by climate disasters. Developing countries that were also island states had been trying for years to secure disaster management funding to respond to the devastation caused by extreme weather events. This was a breakthrough agreement for developing states.

DIRCO acknowledged not all issues which Africa had brought forward had landed the way Africa had wanted. Latin American countries continued to oppose Africa’s efforts to secure recognition under the Paris Agreements on Africa’s special needs and circumstances. The package of finance made available by the COP President provided only incremental progress, and fell short of commitments from more industrialised countries.

South Africa’s biggest concern was suggesting a framework for the global goal adaptation of high-level indicators and targets regarding climate change. South Africa had developed a draft text that had received significant support, but the most industrialised countries had simply adopted an open-ended, vague document which took the world backwards.

South Africa would have to galvanise its efforts in advocating for high-level indicators and targets that would help the world monitor and evaluate if progress was being made against climate change and reducing vulnerability.

Presentation: COP27 outcomes

Mr Simon Cardy, Deputy Director: Climate Change, DIRCO, led the Department's presentation on the COP27 outcomes.

South Africa’s overarching approach

• The urgency of climate crisis and need for each UNFCCC Party to contribute its best effort, based on best available science. SA has a reputation as a constructive and progressive contributor at the UNFCCC and came to COP27 with further national progress (e.g. just transition framework, JETP).
• The importance of supporting Egypt to ensure the success of the African COP.
• That Climate Change is a Sustainable Development issue (2030 Agenda SDG13, with cross-cutting social, economic and environmental impacts affecting most other SDGs).
• The response to climate change needs to be seen in the context of people-centred development and the Right to Development and Just Transitions (National priority of addressing triple challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment).
• South Africa’s position is that no SDG is more important than the others in the context of eliminating poverty. The SDGs need to be implemented holistically.
• Of central importance was securing the enabling means of implementation (finance, technology transfer and capacity building) for ALL developing countries that require it. Contestation over eligibility for multilateral support is amongst the most important political issues (70% of the world’s poor are not eligible).
• Climate action needs to be in accordance with the Rio Principles, in particular equity, common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities in light of national circumstances. This is because historical responsibility for causing climate change and the capacity to address it varies amongst UN Member States.
• Africa is the least historically responsible and has amongst the least capacity, but is disproportionately impacted. Africa’s Special Needs and Circumstances (eligibility for support) are recognised under the UNFCCC Convention but not its Paris Agreement.
• All of government and all stakeholder inclusive approach is required

Structure of COP27 (6-20 November 2022)

• UNFCCC COPs are the largest and most complex multilateral events, with official negotiations and parallel processes for parliamentarians, business, civil society, scientists, philanthropists, youth
• The official Party-driven process was comprised of:
  • Preparatory coordination meetings of the major negotiating groups (2-5 November)
  • Official opening of the three governing bodies COP, CMP and CMA (6 November)
  • Climate Implementation Summit / First part of the High-level segment (7 and 8 November)
  • Negotiations under the Subsidiary Bodies, SBI and SBSTA (7-11 November)
  • Second part of the high-level segment and ministerial level negotiations (11-18 November, extended to 20 November)

Geopolitical context

• COP27 took place at a time when there are strained relations between the USA and China and the Russia-Ukraine war has fuelled geopolitical tensions, disrupted global supply chains and generated inflationary, energy and food security crises.
• There is a trust deficit between developed and developing countries, due to developed countries continuously pressing for new commitments and setting new climate targets, whilst backtracking on their own mitigation and finance commitments.
• This political environment affected the negotiations, which became tense and protracted, and eroded the foundations for securing maximum ambition.
• The G20 Summit’s ability to secure an outcome, sent a signal that there would likely be an outcome from COP27.

Negotiation dynamics

• The summit added momentum and direction. The USA and Brazil had held their mini summits;
• The Russia-Ukraine issue did not derail the negotiations due to apparent prior understandings among the protagonists. Russia supported the positions of middle-income developing countries;
• China and the USA ultimately did reach bilateral understandings on the parameters of the overall deal, but without issuing a joint statement, as in past COPs;
• The Africa Group cohered fairly well both at the Ministerial and technical levels, advancing common positions ahead of COP;
• The basic group led by South Africa became influential in the concluding phase of the COP; and
• There were difficulties in enticing developing countries to engage on issues other than mitigation.
• Egypt was responsible for drafting the cover decisions, and they had to frame the document. South Africa helped Egypt with drafting the cover decisions.

Cover decision outcomes

• The cover text prepared by Egypt, and substantially modified by the USA and others, contained strong language on locating climate change within a sustainable development context and just transitions;
• It contained a significant political signal on the need to transform the global financial architecture and reform the multilateral development banks;
• It conveyed a message of urgency to address climate change based on the best available science, and the focus remained on 1.5 degrees and implementation.

Mitigation outcomes

• There were protracted disagreements between different groupings over the scope, timeframe and expected outcome of the mitigation work programme. SA and Denmark facilitated the ministerial negotiations and presented a bridging proposal that was rejected.
• A comprise was reached on the 2016 timeframe, with four years of decisions and numerous workshops to share best practices.

Financial outcomes

• The key achievement was the political framing of the need for transformation of the global financial system. The specific mandates were process-related and bound to timelines beyond CO27.
• Incremental progress was made towards the negotiation of a new collective, quantified finance goal beyond $100 billion per annum from 2025.
• Developed countries continued to refuse multilateral scrutiny of their failure to deliver on the $100 billion by 2020, producing their report claiming they were well on track.
• There was an agreement to set up a new fund for just transition.

Adaption outcomes

• In the negotiations, South Africa -- working through the Africa group -- seemed to have secured an agreement to accelerate work in identifying indicators and targets to facilitate support to achieving the goals and assessing collective progress.
• However, in the dying moments of the conference, some developed countries unilaterally replaced the version of the text that was ready for adoption with their non-negotiated text that contained no framing and took the process backwards. This text was gavelled through due to fears of derailing the conference, and many were unaware of the switch.

(See presentation for further details)

The Chairperson thanked DIRCO and the Deputy Minister for the presentation. This had been quite useful, and the Committee would, in future, compare it with other COPs and the progress that Africa had made.

The meeting was adjourned.