As the United Nations Climate Summit COP27 comes to a close this week in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh, the conference’s key aim of ensuring full adherence to the Paris Agreement is unlikely to be fulfilled. Since last year’s COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, “only 29 out of 194 countries [in the agreement] came forward with tightened national plans,” a UN press release stated.
Yet, while most members are making some efforts to cap climate change, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states have focused on the need for a two-pronged approach to climate — focusing on both oil and green energy — amid rising energy demand following the war in Ukraine and the nations’ reliance on energy exports as a mainstay of their economics.