The UN's climate change conference COP27: Topics on the agenda

The UN's annual climate change conference is currently ongoing in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. Over the course of two weeks, representatives of the world's nations will gather to discuss how to achieve the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement and contribute to the climate transition.

At this year's COP, the focus will be on topics such as climate finance, damage and loss, adaptation to climate change and emission reductions.

"The negotiations are a process in which each step and each conference is important. The climate change conference in Glasgow last year adopted new initiatives, such as the working programs for more ambitious aims regarding emission reductions and adaptation. Concretizing these programs during this year's conference is very important, as global emissions continue to increase and climate effects proliferate—it is becoming increasingly clear how little time we have to reverse the trend," says Markku Rummukainen, professor of Climatology at the Center for Environmental and Climate Science (CEC) and the Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science at Lund University.

What are reasonable expectations for the conference?

"No single conference solves the climate issue. The world is still out of step regarding measures for the climate. But concretizing the decisions taken in Glasgow can contribute to reinforce both emission reductions and adaptation. Some progress has been made in the 'intermediate discussions' held during the year regarding, for example, damage and loss."

What needs to happen at COP27 for global climate collaboration to advance?

"More climate finance is needed for developing countries, including compensation for what is known as climate-related damage and loss. It is also important that progress is made during the conference on the global overview, which is to compare the overall effect of the countries' national climate plans with the Paris Agreement's global goals—how much difference is there between the former and the latter? Our status regarding the level of ambition for emission reductions will then form the basis of updated national climate plans."

COP stands for Conference Of the Parties. The parties are those countries that signed the UN's Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which was drawn up at the Rio conference in 1992. Each climate COP has a number to designate its place in the conference series. COP27 is accordingly the UN's 27th climate change conference.