'Dear Earth, thank you for always being there': A COP27 Report

The 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) was held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, began on 6 November 2022 and lasted approximately for two weeks. Egypt announced that this year's COP27 theme was ‘Together for Implementation’ and was reflected throughout COP27.
The words seemed to reflect the thoughts on everyone’s mind: "How much of what has been decided at previous COPs has actually been implemented?" or "At COP27, we will definitely bring about the concrete implementation of climate change measures".

Divided into two parts, namely week1 and week 2, with various exhibitions and seminars are held during COP27. During week 1, our team held an exhibit demonstrating technologies and ongoing research at Japanese research institutions to mitigate the impact of climate change and introduced our adaptation plans. During the exhibition, our booth received numerous visitors interested in our platform AP-PLAT.

We also held a seminar on 11 November at the Japan Pavilion and welcomed speakers from Asia-Pacific countries, Japan, Bangladesh, and Timor-Leste. Discussions on processes of climate change adaptation plans and contributions of cutting-edge technology and platforms to the process were held.

The countries participating in that seminar are already facing the effects of climate change. Last year, for example, Timor-Leste experienced heavy flooding due to extreme rainfall, washing away homes and claiming lives although such large-scale flooding did not happen a few decades ago in Timor-Leste and current climate trends are threatening people’s lives in this beautiful country. Adaptation plans must be urgently developed and implemented in every country to mitigate the already unavoidable effects of climate change.

At COP27, private sectors showcased several technologies and products helping to mitigate the effects of climate change. The Adaptation booth in the JAPAN Pavilion featured a cooling material developed by SPACECOOL. The new material uses the 'radiative cooling phenomenon' where objects are cooled by radiating heat from the Earth back into space, thus lowering the temperature inside buildings without consuming energy. According to SPACECOOL, there are many areas in Africa where the electricity supply is unstable, or people cannot spend money on utilities. Hence, people from various countries, including those in the African region, were interested in zero-energy heat protection and came to see the exhibit.

One source of funding that companies considering climate change-related businesses is the Green Climate Fund (GCF). At the GCF pavilion, we were informed that Japanese companies have previously applied to the GCF but felt there was a lack of understanding of the GCF and its application process in Japan. People are calling for a deeper commitment from the private sector in advancing the adaptations required to combat the impacts of climate change.

There were elaborate exhibits and seminars in various pavilions. What was most impressive were the letters from children to Earth that were displayed on the walls in the Children and Youth’s Pavilion. They were love letters from children to Earth. The straightforward messages from children, without fear or hesitation, would be engraved on the hearts of many visitors and gave them courage.

After lengthy negotiations, a new funding arrangement on losses and damages was created at COP27. However, the outlook for the impacts of climate change is not encouraging. Scientists reiterated the view that "the impacts of climate change are growing faster than expected, and while adaptation measures are very important, they cannot completely avert the damage." We must act now to weather the storm.