London After COP26, which was postponed due to Covid and attended by approximately 40,000 delegates from Glasgow with a record participation, now COP27 begins in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
According to the preliminary UN listing, more than 33,000 delegates signed up for COP27, making it possibly the second largest peak in COP history.
An analysis of the so-called “Africa COP” by UK climate journalism body Carbon Brief shows that a record number of participants from African countries, as well as representatives from least developed countries and small island states, signed up for COP27. Likewise, the number of NGO observers is currently the second highest in COP history.
However, the road to the top this year has been marred by accusations of inflated hotel prices and concerns about oversight that could affect how many registered attendees can actually attend.
The final list of COP27 participants will be published after the end of the summit.
Carbon Brief has gathered UN provisional data in one analysis, revealing that the United Arab Emirates has registered the largest party delegation this year. With over 1,000 people, the UAE delegation is almost twice the size of Brazil, the second largest country.
The gender balance in all party delegations at COP27 was 63% male and 37% female, similar to the last COPs. And there are only two all-male delegations this year – the least of all climate COPs.
COP27 is the second country with more delegates than any other country in history.
According to the tentative list published by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), 33,449 participants registered for COP27.
For now, this makes Sharm el-Sheikh the second most attended climate COP in history.
COP26 in Glasgow remains the highest attendance, with a final number of 38,457. (See Carbon Brief’s analysis of last year’s COP26 provisional figures.) This is followed by COP21 (30,372) in Paris and COP15 fourth (27,301) in Copenhagen.
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Data for COP 1-26 are “final” numbers, while data for COP27 are initial. Graphics by Joe Goodman for Carbon Brief High charts.
Carbon Brief points out that these are preliminary figures based on delegates who signed up for the summit. UNFCCC will announce final numbers after the summit closes, based on attendees who collect a physical badge at the event venue.
The largest group at COP27 are the delegates representing the countries. These are the nation states that, in addition to the European Union, have ratified the Convention and play an integral role in the negotiations. This group adds up to 16,118 delegates.
For the first time in the history of COPs, there are no “observer” states that have not completed the ratification process.
Since COP22 in Marrakech and in 2016, the only remaining observer state has been the Vatican City, the government of the Roman Catholic Church operating from the Vatican City State and headed by the Pope as Bishop of Rome.
In June, the Holy See issued a statement announcing its accession to the Convention and the Paris Agreement. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Minister of State, said in his message to the COP27 leaders’ summit:
“This is the first session of the UNFCCC where the Holy See has participated as a State Party to the Convention and the Paris Agreement.
This important step is consistent with Pope Francis’ announcing that in 2020 the Vatican will commit to its net zero emissions target.”
The Vatican delegation, consisting of six men and two women, is bringing more than one woman delegate to the COP for the second time.
Next comes the non-governmental organizations (NGO) group, which includes 11,711 participants from 1,751 organizations. This is the second largest group of NGO participants in COP history, after 12,048 people who attended COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009.
Despite the high number of registered NGO delegates, many civil society groups have criticized the Egyptian government for “exorbitant” hotel costs and fears of delegate oversight.
The final participant lists will reveal how many NGO participants are actually able to participate.
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Besides NGOs, there are a number of other groups that fall under the category of “observer organisations”, such as participants representing UN bodies, intergovernmental organisations, other institutions and business representatives. That’s a total of 2,270 registered delegates.
The smallest group of COP participants is the media. There are 3,350 individuals representing 1,306 organizations registered as journalists for COP27. This is the second highest number after the 3,712 media delegates who attended COP3 in Kyoto in 1997.
However, Carbon Brief points out that the actual number of media delegates attending the COP is often less than what is shown on the tentative list. For example, 3,781 people signed up for COP26 but only 2,602 attended.
next year hosts
In addition to grand totals, the UNFCCC also publishes a list by name of each country and observer delegation. From these lists, Carbon Brief calculated the size of each country delegation registered for COP27.
The final list will also include party “spread” delegates, which parties can nominate without their names appearing on the official list. There are other “working” and “temporary” participants not listed in the COPs).
The largest country delegation at COP27 is from the United Arab Emirates, which registered 1,073 delegates. This is the second largest delegation in the history of the COP, after the massive representation of 1,591 participants from Morocco at the COP22 hosted by the country.
The UAE delegation is almost 10 times larger than what it brought to COP26 (116). However, this is perhaps not surprising given that it has been selected to host COP28 next year.
The second is Brazil with a delegation of 574 people. Carbon Brief’s analysis of how delegations have changed at all COPs since the 1990s showed that Brazil brought in the largest delegation on average.
After Brazil, the largest delegation is followed by the Democratic Republic of Congo (459), Kenya (386) and Canada (377). The top 10 countries are Zimbabwe (264), Senegal (245), Uganda (241), Republic of the Congo (237) and Iraq (235). Iraq’s delegation is almost three times larger than it received at COP26.
It is worth noting that some countries allocate some of their COP27 country badges to NGOs, which can artificially inflate the size of their official delegations.
The map and graph below show the delegation size and gender balance for all countries registered in COP27.
The darker the shading, the more delegates that country registered.
COP27 African countries in Africa
As hosts, Egypt has a 155-member delegation, their largest COP to date.
The average number of delegations from all African countries is 133, possibly the largest in the history of the COP. At the last African COP held in Morocco, the average delegation from African countries was 101. The average magnitude at COP26 was 59.
Likewise, the average size of delegations registered for small island-based developing countries (SIDS) and least developed countries (LDCs) is the largest in the history of the COP.
The average delegation size for SIDS was 22 in COP26 versus 36 in COP27. The average delegation for WDCs is 113 in Sharm El Sheikh compared to 50 in Glasgow.
The final lists, as well as the NGO participants, will show how many delegates from the countries of the global south could actually participate.
Not all countries registered a delegation for COP27. Afghanistan and Myanmar have not sent a delegation to the COP for the second year in a row, while Saint Vincent and the Grenadines are not on the tentative list.
Kiribati, which did not send a delegation to COP26, registered 29 people for COP27.
The country with the biggest drop in delegation numbers since Glasgow was Bangladesh, whose membership fell from 220 at COP26 to 68 at COP27, with 152 fewer people.
The second largest drop was in the UK delegation, which totaled 229 in Glasgow and 93 in Sharm el-Sheikh.
Gender balance: fewer women than men
The UNFCCC list provides the name and title of each registered participant. Therefore, it is possible to establish a balance between men and women in the delegations sent by each country to Egypt.
(It should be noted that the gender balances presented here are based on UNFCCC-set titles and not Carbon Brief. Carbon Brief also recognizes and appreciates that gender is not best categorized using the binary label ‘male’ or ‘female’. UNFCCC lists are completely Note that it may not be correct.)
Throughout the history of COPs, the gender balance of nominated party delegations has become less and less unequal.
While the average delegation at COP1 was 88% male and 12% female, this has changed over time. For example, the average gender balance between COP 23 and 25 was 62% male and 38% female, while COP26 had a balance between 64% and 36%.
The gender balance in the COP27 draft list is similar, with 63% of respondents male and 37% female.
The average size of country delegations assigned to each COP is shown, broken down by male (orange) and female (purple) participants. The lines show what percentage of the average delegation was male (orange) and female (purple). COP 1-26 data is collected from “final” participant lists published by the UNFCCC, while COP27 data is based on the draft list. The total number of delegates for COP27 appears to be higher than for previous COPs because instead of providing a partial list, they named all their delegates in the tentative list. Carbon Brief chart by Joe Goodman High charts.
There are two all-male delegations registered for COP27 – North Korea (four delegates) and Turkmenistan (five). This is very different from the first COP held in Berlin in 1995, where 105 of the 166 delegations were all men.
Although there are more women than men in 26 countries, there is no all-female delegation at COP27.
The delegations of the countries with the most women at COP27 were Niue (77% female, 23% male), Estonia (71% – 29%) and Panama (70% – 30%), a small island in Oceania.
In the USA (58% vs 42%), Australia (57% vs 43%) and the UK (54% vs 46%), their delegations have more women than men.
There are seven countries with a 50-50 gender balance – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cuba, Germany, Latvia, Slovenia, South Korea and Suriname.
A full list of COP27 party delegation sizes and gender balances can be found here.
This article was originally published in Carbon Brief in English and has been reprinted under a Creative Commons license.
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source: Noticias
