After Cop27 – what next for the battle against the climate crisis?

Saphora Smith lays out what has to happen to build on the positives – and help mitigate the shortcomings – of the recent summit in Egypt

Many feel the Cop27 summit failed to make meaningful progress to reduce emissions (Getty/iStock)

Our planet is still in the emergency room – this was the parting shot of the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, at the end of the Cop27 climate summit in Egypt. Guterres welcomed a breakthrough agreement to set up a fund to compensate vulnerable nations for destruction caused by the climate crisis, but warned that the summit’s failure to address the need to reduce emissions left the planet in a perilous state.

“A fund for loss and damage is essential – but it’s not an answer if the climate crisis washes a small island state off the map – or turns an entire African country to desert,” he said. One commentator put it this way: at Cop27 the world may have agreed to start treating the symptoms of the climate crisis but did not do enough to eradicate its cause.

So what now?