Report Back from COP27 by Our Delegate Cindy Piester

From left, WILPF women Nouha Ghosseini (Lebanon), Ayo Ayoola-Amale (Ghana), Cindy Piester (United States), and Tamara Lorencz (Canada) call for peace in the COP27 Blue Zone.

by Cindy Piester
WILPF US Delegate to COP 27

January 2023

I was the WILPF US Delegate to the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) in Egypt in November 2022.

COP 27 appeared to be a failure in powerful ways, while giving space that did allow for some wins, such as the move to finally begin to address much needed Loss and Damages. Some of the other improvements included the much needed renewed climate negotiations between US Envoy John Kerry and his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua; the successful efforts that prevented some nations from being able to roll back some of the climate advances seen under the Paris Agreement; the UN announcement of plans to deliver early warning systems against climate disasters for everyone on earth within just five years; and some forward movement to reduce methane emissions.
 
Of the US government officials that spoke at COP, I found former presidential candidate Al Gore’s demand to leave fossil fuels in the ground and to end their subsidies something I hope WILPF US will fully support. He also called for the World Bank President, David Malpas. to step down due to predatory colonialist lending practices that effectively excluded African nations from accessing climate adaption funds.  

I was also able to get WILPF US’ popular handout that Nancy Price and Darien Du Lu helped create in Gore’s hands (the handout is entitled “Addressing Loss & Damages, the Green Fund, and the Climate Impacts of U.S. Military Emissions”). Our strong support for Loss and Damages was clear and the success of this effort is something that WILPF can be very proud of. The handout also addressed the fact that our Department of Defense (DOD) is the largest institutional contributor to GHG emissions in the world while also alerting readers to the need to reform the UNFCCC’s inadequate military emissions reporting protocols.
 
I was also able to raise these issues personally at the US State Department US Delegates meeting held at COP 27. It was chaired by Jessie Young who serves directly under Presidential Climate Envoy John Kerry. I spoke for a few minutes on this, alerting dozens of other US delegates to this significant issue. Further, just ahead of COP and while still in Cairo, I was able to give a short but well received presentation on these and other WILPF concerns to an international conference on Africa organized by the International Peace Research Institute that was being held in Juba, South Sudan.
  
Given that the existential horror of the climate crisis is already here, already killing hundreds of people at a time from climate caused events like the flooding in Pakistan, it is unbelievable that fossil fuel interests prevailed as the dominant force at COP 27, but prevail they did. During the final hour, some eighty nations, including the US, the UK, and the European Union, attempted to add language to the COP’s final report that would finally call for phasing out fossil fuels. However, the Egyptian President of COP refused to move the protocols necessary into place to allow this to go forward. He said many other nations objected and that the war in the Ukraine also played a role in that decision.

In the year ahead, WILPF’s advocacy to reduce the DOD budget and the economic and environmental impacts of US militarism, as well focusing on ending fossil fuel subsides, are essential to future success. I will cover all of this in greater detail in future offerings.