COP27 was the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, held from November 6 to 20 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. It brought together over 30,000 registered delegates from governments, businesses, NGOs, and civil society groups representing 197 countries. The conference’s most significant outcome was the creation of a first-ever fund to compensate vulnerable nations for climate-related damage, a breakthrough that had been blocked for decades.
What “COP” Stands For
COP stands for “Conference of the Parties,” referring to the countries that signed the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. These conferences have been held annually since 1995, with each one numbered sequentially. COP27 was the 27th such meeting. The “parties” are the 197 nations that agreed to the original climate treaty, and they negotiate in blocs such as the G77 and China, the Africa Group, the Least Developed Countries, and the Small Island Developing States.
The Loss and Damage Fund
The headline achievement of COP27 was the agreement to establish a “loss and damage” fund. This fund is designed to help developing countries that are disproportionately harmed by climate change but contributed the least to causing it. Think of low-lying island nations facing rising seas, or African countries experiencing more severe droughts and floods. These nations had been pushing for financial compensation for over 30 years, and COP27 was the first time wealthy, industrialized countries agreed in principle to pay.
UN Secretary General António Guterres called it “an important step towards justice” but cautioned that it would not be enough on its own, calling it “a much-needed political signal to rebuild broken trust.” The agreement established the fund but left many details about how it would be financed and distributed to future negotiations.
Emissions Targets and the 1.5°C Goal
COP27 continued work under the 2015 Paris Agreement, which set the goal of limiting global warming to well below 2.0°C above pre-industrial levels, with a more ambitious target of 1.5°C. However, progress on actually cutting emissions was widely seen as the conference’s biggest shortcoming.
The final agreement, called the Sharm el-Sheikh Implementation Plan, repeated language from the previous year’s Glasgow Climate Pact calling for “accelerating efforts towards the phasedown of unabated coal power and phase-out of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies.” India pushed to expand this language to cover all fossil fuels, not just coal, but the proposal did not make it into the final text. Meanwhile, Egypt, Nigeria, the United Arab Emirates, and other gas-producing nations promoted natural gas as a “transition fuel,” and the United States announced investments in new natural gas facilities.
Guterres was blunt in his closing statement, saying the planet was “still in the emergency room” and that COP27 had not adequately addressed the need to cut emissions. Alok Sharma, the outgoing COP president from the UK, said “the pulse of 1.5 is weak.”
The Mitigation Work Programme
One concrete step on emissions was the creation of the Sharm el-Sheikh Mitigation Ambition and Implementation Work Programme. This initiative was designed to run from after COP27 through at least 2026, with a possible extension, and aims to scale up emissions reduction efforts during this decade. It holds at least two global dialogues and investment-focused events each year, with topics set by March based on submissions from governments and other stakeholders. Recent dialogues have focused on reducing emissions from industry, agriculture, forestry, and waste.
Food, Nature, and Agriculture Initiatives
COP27 launched several initiatives beyond the main negotiations. The Food and Agriculture for Sustainable Transformation (FAST) initiative aimed to scale up financing to transform agricultural systems by 2030, linking food security to both climate adaptation and the 1.5°C target. Agriculture is both highly vulnerable to climate change and a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions, making it a critical sector for action on both fronts.
The conference also introduced the ENACT initiative (Enhancing Nature-based Solutions for an Accelerated Climate Transformation), a partnership developed by Egypt, Germany, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Its goals were ambitious: enhance climate resilience for at least 1 billion vulnerable people, secure up to 2.4 billion hectares of healthy natural and agricultural ecosystems through a combination of protection, sustainable management, and restoration, and boost global emissions reductions by conserving carbon-rich ecosystems on land and in the ocean. ENACT was designed as a voluntary coalition to coordinate efforts that had previously been scattered across different sectors and organizations.
Criticism and Controversy
COP27 drew significant criticism on several fronts. An analysis by Global Witness, Corporate Accountability, and Corporate Europe Observatory identified at least 636 fossil fuel lobbyists among the 30,000-plus registered delegates. Critics argued that the presence of industry representatives with a financial interest in continued fossil fuel use undermined the conference’s stated goals.
The host country also drew scrutiny. Egypt’s human rights record raised concerns among activists, and reports emerged of restricted protest access and surveillance of attendees. Environmental groups and some government representatives expressed frustration that the final agreement failed to strengthen language on phasing out fossil fuels beyond what had already been agreed the previous year in Glasgow.
The tension at COP27 reflected a broader divide in global climate politics: developing nations, which are already experiencing severe climate impacts, secured a historic win on loss and damage funding, while progress on the root cause of climate change, fossil fuel emissions, largely stalled.