Priyal Patel

By Priyal Patel

COP27, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, brings stakeholders to address the topics of mitigation, adaptation, finance, and collaboration. The conference attempts to bring “ governments, the private sector, and civil society ” together to help transform the planet and “ alleviate the adverse impacts of climate change ” (COP27, 2022). The conference had multiple different talks and negotiations, covering topics from capacitybuilding under the convention, matters relating to the least developed countries, and gender and climate change (United Nations Climate Change, 2022).

unesco.org/en/climate-change/cop27 (UNESCO, n.d.)

There was a large group of younger people at this year ' s conference in Egypt. These younger voices are a powerful force that many people believe will be the biggest influence in shifting climate change policy. One of the young activists is Vanessa Nakate from Uganda. Vanessa came to the conference to speak with G20 nations. In her speech, Vanessa asked the G20 leaders to stop funding fossil fuels. She used persuasive language to call attention, asking them if they ‘ will be on the right side of history ” , and if they won ’t, they should at least be honest with their citizens (Rannard, 2022; Mahieddine, 2022) . The voices of these younger generations are critical as the need for action increases with increasing climate-related disasters. Their ability to call on national leaders and create strikes and protests makes their voices bigger. It helps push those in political power to be environmentally conscious when making decisions.

The conference has also been hit with a lot of criticism from young people. Famously known, Greta Thunberg has even refused to go to the “Sharm elSheikh meeting” (Rannard,2022). She said that it was a forum for ‘greenwashing’”(Rannard, 2022). Greta stated this because many of the big sponsors for the event are the least sustainable and have the biggest stakes in determining the environment's future. Companies like Coca-Cola are sponsoring a green event but are one of the biggest plastic-polluting companies in the world (Krishna, 2022). Many are angered by this and feel that it is impossible for us to implement sustainability if the companies we allow to fund these events do not embed sustainability practices in their companies. Is the way that COP27 is funded the best way? Or must we look at our past and stop giving credit to companies that have stated that they will take action but have not done so?

COP27 has also been hit with criticism about the lack of women that were included in the negotiation processes. Women participation in countries' delegations has decreased from 40% in 2018 to 35% in 2022 (Stallard, 2022). The amount of males among leaders does not allow for proper UN Sustainability goals to be achieved. Countries were supposed to have increased their women participation in these talks. If they did, they have also seemingly increased their male participation to a point where women participation is still far from 50% of the total conference, even though women make up a larger percentage of the world's population.

We must ask ourselves if this is the best way to increase sustainability. Using companies that don't promote sustainability practices to fund our conventions makes them seem more sustainable for doing very little. By forgetting the importance of women leaders and by not helping promote the inclusion of more women in the policymaking process, we are also allowing ourselves to accept sustainability standards that don’t reflect our goals. As we continue to use these conferences to boost climate change policy, we must keep a close eye on our UN sustainability goals and make sure the choices that go into planning the convention coincide with these goals.