This year marked the 27th gathering of over 45,000 political, royal and (in some cases) controversial people together for the infamous environmental conference. The COP events first started in Berlin, in 1995 and have made some massive steps in sustainability such as the 2015 Paris Agreement, which held countries accountable for reducing their carbon emissions, as well as some not so forward-thinking and a major reluctance for change in 2009. Overall, the COP events have made some reassuring progress, or so we thought. 

After Scotland’s success at hosting in 2021, the baton was passed over to Africa to put forward a representative to graciously organise this thing; however, not everyone was thrilled with the country they chose. Egypt offers stunning views; little liberty of the press and a strong aversion to protests. And did I mention it’s also a dictatorship? Many campaigners were concerned about the safety of local activists once the media circus left. This is still a very prevalent concern over a week since it has ended and is probably not helped by the major accusations of appalling human rights the Egyptian Government seem defined by.  

People were also a bit bewildered by the pick and mix of personalities held by the esteemed invitees - one of which was Rishi Sunak, the newly appointed British Prime Minister who, after much duress and a bit of competition from BoJo, retracted his initial statement that he was not going. Others were disappointed by the lack of an appearance from the royal eco-warrior Charles III who took petrol stations by storm when he revealed that his Aston Martin runs on surplus white wine and cheese whey. How innovative? With these kinds of credentials, it's no wonder he’s been dubbed the ‘Climate King’. 

Moving on, everyone's favourite activist Greta Thunberg decided to sit this year out due to the lack of change it seems to garner. In an interview for her latest book, she said ‘The COPs are mainly used as an opportunity for leaders and people in power to get attention, using many different types of greenwashing.’ And unfortunately, she might be right. Due to the nature of the very high-profile guests, COP27 was responsible for around 88 private jets flights into the local airports. That’s equivalent to about 4730 kg of carbon emitted into the environment per plane, per hour- perhaps some input from Charles on using food waste as fuel might be useful here? 

But surely this detrimental impact is justified by the sound conclusion drawn by thousands of industry experts. Well, I’ll let you make that judgement: COP27 identified the need for a climate monitoring system and established a new loss and damage fund for countries impacted by natural disasters. All of which could probably have been discussed via Zoom in order to make it a more accessible event to those most affected by global warming. On top of this it failed to mention plans to phase out our reliance on fossils fuels and lower our greenhouse gas emissions. 

In general, it seemed that many parties were understanding of the need for desperate measures; however, their urgency to act upon this will be witnessed over the coming weeks, months and even years. This begs the question: how effective are the COP events in preventing our environmental impact on the earth?