2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27)

The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference more commonly referred to as COP27 was held from 6 November to 20 November 2022 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. The conference took place under the presidency of Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry, with more than 92 heads of state and an estimated 35,000 representatives of 190 countries attending.

Set against a difficult geopolitical backdrop, COP27 resulted in countries delivering a package of decisions that reaffirmed their commitment to limit global temperature. The package also strengthened action by countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the inevitable impacts of climate change, as well as boosting the support of finance, technology and capacity building needed by developing countries. Some of the key highlights of the Conference in relation to clean energy and climate smart innovations include:

1. The African Union, the African Development Bank, and Africa50 launched a $10 billion initiative, the Alliance for Green Infrastructure in Africa (AGIA), an initiative to help scale and accelerate financing for green infrastructure projects in Africa. AGIA will raise up to $500 million to provide early-stage project development capital. This is capital that will build a robust pipeline of bankable projects, starting with pre-feasibility stage all the way through to commercial and financial close. The key focus areas for the infrastructure fund are energy, transport, water and sanitation, health infrastructure, broadband infrastructure, urban and rural infrastructure.

2. Signing of a bilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between European Union and Egypt on a strategic partnership on renewable hydrogen. The MoU will serve as a framework to support long-term conditions for the development of a renewable hydrogen industry and trade across the EU and Egypt, including infrastructure and financing. It will also support EU’s ambition of reaching 20 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen consumption in 2030, as outlined in the REPowerEU plan, and therefore help reduce dependency on Russian fossil fuels.

3. The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) and Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) launched the African Carbon Markets Initiative to grow the carbon credit retirements and expand into agriculture and land use. Multiple African nations including Kenya, Malawi, Gabon, Nigeria and Togo joined the ACMI launch event to announce their commitment to scaling voluntary carbon markets. ACMI’s mission aims to:

• Produce 300 million carbon credits annually by 2030, and 1.5 billion credits annually by 2050.
• Unlock 6 billion in revenue by 2030 and over 120 billion by 2050.
• Support 30 million jobs by 2030 and over 110 million jobs by 2050.
• Distribute revenue equitably and transparently with local communities.

4. The UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Expert Group on Net-Zero Commitments published a report at COP27, serving as a how-to guide to ensure credible, accountable net-zero pledges by industry, financial institutions, cities and regions.

5. A joint initiative led by the UAE and the US announced doubling of investments by partners in climate-smart agriculture and food systems innovation to USD $8 billion. The Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM for Climate) is an initiative led by the US and UAE governments, supported by 42 countries and 235 partners, with the focus on increasing investment in climate-smart agriculture and food systems innovation to accelerate climate action with an initial investment of $4 billion