There is little room for grandiose ambitions at COP27. Instead, the 27th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, hosted this week by the African regional group in Egypt and dubbed the “African COP”, aims to meet COP26 commitments with practical solutions. In fact, the COP presidency’s website named it the “Climate Implementation Summit.”
But what was always a colossal task of landing practical solutions has been made more difficult by the economic, geopolitical, and energy challenges of 2022 such as the weakened international ties following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and recent OPEC+ announcements.
Among the practical solutions that are likely to be advanced, are those by wealthy oil and gas exporting economies in the Gulf, especially de facto leader Saudi Arabia, that centre around fossil fuels. COP27 may well be remembered as the conference that saw fossil fuels strongly shoulder their way back to the negotiating table.
