The UN's COP27 climate summit has now concluded. A significant global effort has been made to conduct negotiations in the interest of addressing climate change from a range of perspectives. At the same time, the IES and its communities have been working to support transformative change, while also engaging the public and our wider community from an interdisciplinary perspective.
This article summarises just some of the work that the IES has been involved in over the past two weeks since the start of COP27.
Catch up on the latest climate content from the IES
- Interdisciplinary Webinar: Climate change and the marine environment
- Finance Day Article: Climate finance - Where do we stand?
- Science Day Article: A spotlight on science
- Youth and Generations Day Article: Meet our Student Ambassadors
- Decarbonisation Day Article: The role of professional bodies in decarbonisation
- Adaptation and Agriculture Day Article: Soils at the centre
- Water Day Webinar: Systems of systems approaches for urban water management
- IAQM Webinar: Climate change from the air quality perspective
- Energy Day Webinar: Combustion Transition Framework
- Biodiversity Day Webinar: Kent Wildlife Trust's approach to integrating NbS finance in delivering nature recovery
- Interdisciplinary Webinar: Using GIS in systems thinking for improved support for biodiversity net gain
- Solutions Day Article: Positive progress but not enough
- Launch of the IES Climate Affiliate Scheme
- Gender Day Spotlight on Women in Environmental Science across disciplines:
- Sian Davies-Vollum, Marine
- Sarah Hodson, Climate
- Lisa Ashari, EIA
- Cheryl Donohoe & Suzanne White, Land Condition
- Celebrating the one year anniversary of our Manifesto for Transformative Change
Outcomes of COP27
COP27 produced mixed results from an environmental perspective. For the first time, meaningful progress is being made on loss and damage, with a small but not insignificant amount of funding. Key developments on adaptation such as the Sharm-El-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda and the Global Shield Against Climate Risks have the potential to wake up global resilience efforts to the reality of the adaptation challenge needed. Those two issues will be crucial to ensuring that the world can work together to combat climate change without compromising the possibility of a just transition.
At the same time, mitigation of climate change must see a drastic increase in ambitions for our efforts to be meaningful. Where COP26 opened the door for countries to ratchet-up NDCs on an annual basis, COP27 has not successfully turned that opportunity into a ritual. Some positive initiatives around COP27 have helped the mitigation agenda, but more will be needed to capitalise on those opportunities for meaningful progress towards net zero in 2023.
Read more in our summary of the policy outcomes of COP27.
If you want to support the work of the IES to promote science-led solutions to climate change, you can join as a Climate Affiliate, or if you’re a professional in the environmental sector working with science, consider becoming a member of the IES.
