COP27: What to Expect

AT COP27, the world is hoping to update the 2015 Paris Accord on mitigating climate change. It took us all this time, because the COP negotiators have to deal with the accord's dual objective. Each one of those objectives has its own policy implications.

First is the target of “holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels”. Second is the aspiration for “pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

In order to meet those objectives, we may have to resort to geo-engineering. This means either of two things: shade the sun, or remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and re-inject them into the ground…