COP27 failed. So why continue with these UN climate summits?:
Climate change is an existential threat to human civilization and planetary ecosystems.
Yet despite 27 UN Conference of the Parties (COP) meetings that have
taken place so far, the international community has been unable to ward
off imminent disaster.
A number of expert commentators have already declared COP27 — the recent UN climate summit in Egypt — to be a failure. The talks stalled on key issues and failed to secure commitments to stop greenhouse gas emissions from rising beyond thresholds that will lead to dangerous global warming.
Other critical voices are concerned that the whole process is becoming too business-friendly, to the detriment of other perspectives and voices. These yearly big climate conferences have also been criticized as a waste of time and resources.
Given these problems and repeated failures, why continue with the COP
meetings? As researchers who study social movements and environmental
and climate change politics and policy, we believe that continuing with
these climate conferences can still lead to positive outcomes.