Rising sea levels and weather disasters are hitting poorer nations hardest. Facing devastating impacts and rising debt, they want next month’s COP27 climate talks in Egypt to deliver a dramatic boost in finance to help them adapt to climate change and compensation for growing loss and damage. Can COP27 deliver? The Straits Times looks at the key issues and what they mean for Singapore.
What’s hot at UN Climate Change Conference COP27
Leaders from almost 200 nations will gather in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm-el-Sheikh from Nov 6 to 18 to hammer out details of how countries can take climate action under the Paris Agreement. Audrey Tan, David Fogarty and Cheryl Tan highlight six key issues that will be discussed at COP27, this year’s United Nations climate change conference.
Why UN Climate Change Conference COP27 matters for Singapore
In less than three weeks, about 195 countries and tens of thousands of business and civil society observers will gather again for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27).
This year, the Egyptian seaside city of Sharm el-Sheik will play host to the annual global climate conference.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said COP27 is “the number one litmus test” of how seriously governments take the growing climate threat faced by the most vulnerable countries.
Singapore taking steps to build diverse portfolio of carbon credit sources
The Republic has started discussions on carbon markets with more than 20 countries, paving the way for the setting up of carbon credit projects that could help the nation meet its climate change targets.
These talks could eventually lay the foundations for Singapore to buy carbon credits from a variety of sources – similar to the nation’s strategy of diversifying imports of food and energy.
Countries that Singapore is in talks with include Ghana, Indonesia, Morocco, Brunei and Colombia, said Mr Benedict Chia, director-general of climate change at the National Climate Change Secretariat, which is part of the Prime Minister’s Office’s strategy group.
Singaporean appointed to sit on UN body overseeing carbon credit trade
The director-general for climate change at Singapore’s National Climate Change Secretariat (NCCS), Mr Benedict Chia, has been appointed to sit on a United Nations body charged with the set-up and oversight of a centralised marketplace of carbon credits.
Mr Chia, 46, is the only Singaporean on the supervisory body, which was set up by the UN in July. There are 24 members on the panel, including representatives from Trinidad and Tobago, Poland and Ukraine.
NCCS said the Singapore Government had nominated Mr Chia to represent the Alliance of Small Island States (Aosis) on this UN body, and the alliance had accepted.
COP27 faces huge gulf in climate finance for most needy nations
The damage bill from Pakistan’s flood crisis is now US$40 billion (S$57 billion). The disaster risks setting back the indebted nation by years and its shocking scale, inundating a third of the country, is testament to the growing impacts and costs of climate change on the poorest and most vulnerable nations – which are least to blame for global warming.
Finance to help these cash-strapped countries has become urgent, and the issue will dominate discussions at next month’s COP27 United Nations climate talks in Egypt.
The money is needed to pay for clean energy investment, help poorer nations adapt to worsening impacts and compensate them for permanent loss and damage. The last issue has become an urgent and focal one for vulnerable countries, with many hobbled by debt.
