#EUFridays by JEF Hungary #34

The controversial climate summit: the COP27

The Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC or COP27 – which is the annual climate conference of the United Nations – is held between November 6th and November 18th in Egypt this year, and even though the convention has just seen its first few days, there is already big controversy around it.

United Nations climate summits are held every year in order for governments to agree on steps to limit global temperatures, as they have risen 1.1C and are heading towards 1.5C, according to the UN's climate scientists, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). If the temperature ever reaches the point between 1.7 and 1.8C half the world’s population could be exposed to life-threatening heat and humidity.

More than 200 governments are invited to the summit: “This is a defining moment in the life of our planet,” declared Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi as proceedings got underway earlier this week. “There’s no room for retreat or excuses. Missing the opportunity means the loss of our legacy and the future of our children and grandchildren.”

Ahead of the meeting, the participating countries were asked to submit their – sometimes very ambitious – climate plans. As of Monday, November 7th, only 25 of these countries have done so.

COP27 is focusing on 3 main areas:

• Reducing emissions
• Helping countries to prepare for and deal with climate change
• Securing technical support and funding for developing countries for the above

Some areas that were not fully resolved or covered at COP26 will be picked up:

• Loss and damage finance - money to help countries recover from the effects of climate change, rather than just prepare for it 
• Establishment of a global carbon market - to price the effects of emissions into products and services globally
• Strengthen the commitments to reduce coal use

The summit has only seen its first 5 days so far, but many have already expressed their concerns. Climate activists like Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg have already turned their back on COP27, insisting it’s an exercise in “greenwashing” by laggard governments and cynical corporations. Few governments have followed through on ambitious pledges to accelerate their cuts to emissions.

There has been criticism on social media of delegates arriving via private jets: data from FlightRadar24 shows 36 private jets landed at Sharm el-Sheikh between 4 and 6 November, the start of the summit, and a further 64 flew into Cairo, 24 of which had come from Sharm el-Sheikh. The day before the conference began, hundreds of environmental activists stopped private jets leaving Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, by sitting in front of their wheels and riding around the airfield on bicycles.

Egypt’s government and Sissi was powerless to prevent political activists from taking center stage in Sharm el-Sheikh on Tuesday and highlighting the plight of Alaa Abdel Fattah, a 40-year-old British Egyptian activist on hunger strike. Fattah was imprisoned in 2014 by the autocratic regime on dubious charges for protesting without permission and later sentenced in 2021 to 5 more years in prison for “spreading fake news,” a charge weaponized by Egypt’s authorities to silence their critics. His plight has overshadowed proceedings at COP27 and led to rights groups and international organizations calling out Egypt’s appalling human rights record, including the detention of tens of thousands of political prisoners.

Private jets, activists and greenwashing, however, are not the most pressing concerns the summit has to face: Western security advisers are warning delegates at the COP27 climate summit not to download the host Egyptian government's official smartphone app, amid fears it could be used to hack their private emails, texts and even voice conversations.

The app is being promoted as a tool to help attendees navigate the event, however, it risks giving the Egyptian government permission to read users' emails and messages. Even messages shared via encrypted services like WhatsApp are vulnerable, according to POLITICO's technical review of the application, and two of the outside experts. On smartphones running Google's Android software, it has permission to potentially listen into users' conversations via the app, even when the device is in sleep mode, and it can also track people's locations via smartphone's built-in GPS and Wi-Fi technologies, according to two of the analysts.

The app is nothing short of "a surveillance tool that could be weaponized by the Egyptian authorities to track activists, government delegates and anyone attending COP27" said Marwa Fatafta, digital rights lead for the Middle East and North Africa for Access Now. Upon further review, according to another security expert, "The application is a cyber weapon”.

"The Egyptian government cannot be entrusted with managing people’s personal data given its dismal human rights record and blatant disregard for privacy" said Fatafta, the digital rights campaigner.

Via: BBC, Politico, The Washington Post

~~~~~

USA Midterm Elections vs. European Union

As the contours of the new U.S. Congress become clearer, diplomats and policy analysts are trying to discern what it will mean for American support for Ukraine’s fight against Russia, for NATO, and for what may be an even tougher line on China.

While the final results in the United States are still uncertain, including control of Congress, early analysis Wednesday reflected genuine surprise in Europe at the results: much of Europe breathed a sigh of relief as a weaker-than-expected showing by Republicans and the absence of major election violence eased concern about turmoil in the transatlantic relationship and the health of American democracy — at least for now. The results of the first major races since the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection are likely to lend some short-term stability to efforts to isolate Russia and support Ukrainian forces, the central concern for European officials and diplomats heading into the midterms. The outcome will also add a sense of continuity to day-to-day diplomacy.

In recent weeks, many European observers predicted the Republicans would easily take both chambers of Congress and the front-of-mind question was whether a wave of Trump-aligned candidates skeptical of the war effort in Ukraine would prevail, potentially unraveling the