At the beginning of next November, more specifically between the 6th and 18th, the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference will take place in Sharm el-Sheikh – an Egyptian city on the Red Sea coast. But what can we expect from this highly important event? 

Conceived by the United Nations, the COP has brought together leaders from practically every country in the world since 1995 and, in recent years, these conferences have contributed substantially to the implementation of climate-related agreements, such as the Paris Agreement (announced in 2015, during COP21) and the global carbon market (announced in 2021, during COP26).

The official slogan of COP27 is “together for implementation”, which opens horizons for the implementation of the various promises and goals agreed upon in recent years, after, in 2021, the Rulebook of the Agreement on Paris. However, it is necessary to coordinate efforts so that the new measures are implemented homogeneously throughout the world, which leads us to what will possibly be the main theme of this year's conference: the climate finance.

In 2009, during COP15 in Copenhagen, the so-called developed countries promised to create and make available to developing countries a fund of 100 billion dollars per year until 2020, so that they could implement measures to combat climate change. This promise, however, was not fulfilled and, in 2022, it is expected that this topic will return to the conference tables. 

Still, not everything is negative. Contrary to what happened in 2009, the signals given today by large financial entities are quite promising. By 2025, the World Bank's Climate Change Action Plan aims to allocate, annually, 25 billion dollars to initiatives that aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote adaptation to more sustainable environments, while contributing, for the development of the region and reduction of poverty. Furthermore, in 2021, the World Bank changed its investment portfolio, not having financed any project or company linked to fossil fuels.

Having said all this, we can anticipate that the financial issue will be the crucial point of the 27th United Nations Conference on Climate Change, with developing countries – which are the most vulnerable to climate change, as we can see from the tragic events in Pakistan , which recently had ⅓ of its territory submerged – demanding action and international financing mechanisms to combat global warming.