The negotiations were chaotic, riddled with doubt and led to results that were either seen as progress or heavily criticised. Expectations, developments and goals from the latest climate change conference as seen through the eyes of the scientists and coordinator of the Italian delegation. The video of the in-depth webinar (in Italian) on COP27 organized by CMCC, IPCC Focal Point for Italy.

The 27th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 27) to the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) took place in November in Sharm el-Sheikh. Building on the premises that emerged from the COP26 held in Glasgow, and in particular from the recognition of the need for more rapid, urgent and far-reaching mitigation actions to limit the impacts of climate change, COP27 was the place to make these goals operational. It was set to be the ‘Implementation COP’.

The webinar “Dopo COP 27: i risultati dell’ultima conferenza sui cambiamenti climatici – After COP 27: the results of the last climate change conference”, organized on 13 December by the CMCC, IPCC Focal Point for Italy, gave experts from the Italian delegation to COP27 a platform to share the results of the negotiations. They highlighted how climate change mitigation issues have failed to take centre stage, leaving instead more room for progress on adaptation and loss and damage.

COP27 opened in an international geopolitical context that has changed considerably since the conclusion of the previous negotiations, said Federica Fricano of the Italian Ministry for the Environment and Energy Security and head of the Italian delegation to the climate negotiations in Sharm el-Sheikh. The consequences on the energy sector, together with the COP priorities as defined by the Egyptian Presidency, contributed to accelerating progress on issues that are more related to vulnerabilities to climate change, rather than those related to mitigation.

The progress achieved on climate change adaptation and Loss and Damage were illustrated in the webinar by Marta Ellena and Elisa Calliari, CMCC researchers who participated in the Italian delegation at COP27 by offering their scientific support together with Lucia Perugini, who focussed mainly on mitigation issues. Perugini highlighted the urgency expressed by the latest IPCC reports to drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions, and the availability of a range of possible solutions. An urgency that has not yet found a response at the implementation level, not only in the context of international negotiations, but also at the national level.

Watch the webinar: