COP27: outcomes, achievements and costs

Scottish Government activities at COP27

The FM and the Minister participated in approximately 27 bilateral meetings and 16 speaking events during COP27. The Cabinet Secretary Michael Matheson also participated in an event virtually.  

Below lists some of the key engagements for the First Minister, the Minister, the Director of Energy and Climate Change and the Deputy Director of International Climate Change. Some of these, but not all, took place at the pavilion. The full list of Scottish Government hosted events at the pavilion are in the next section.

• Bilateral meeting with Mia Mottley, the Prime Minister of Barbados
• Bilateral meeting with Antonio Vitorino, Director General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM)
• Bilateral meeting with Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat
• Meetings with Global South partners/NGOs and Stop Climate Chaos Scotland
• Bilateral meeting with Shemara Wikramanayake CEO of Macquarie
• “When will leaders lead? Creating fiscal space and directed finance for climate and health goals” High-level panel discussion with Mia Mottley, Mariana Muzzucato, Hala El Said and Ngozi Okonjo Iweala
• Bilateral meeting with Sherry Rehman, Pakistan’s Federal Minister of Climate Change and COP27 lead negotiator on loss and damage and the G77 Negotiating Group
• Bilateral meeting with Jennifer Morgan, Special Envoy for International Climate Action at the Federal Foreign Office of Germany
• New York Times event: On the verge of progress: Where will COP27 take us? – High level panel discussion Laurance Tubbiana, Hakima El Haiti 
• Opening speech at the event on ‘The State of the Energy Transition’ with Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency
• Bilateral meeting with Patricia Espinosa, Former Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
• Bilateral meeting with Kenneth Ofori-Atta, Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, Ghana (Chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum and V20)
• Loss and Damage Panel – High level panel discussion on loss and damage with Tim Benton, Director of the Environment and Society Programme at Chatham House, Prof. Saleemul Huq, Director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD), Frances Way, Executive Director of the UN High Level Champions Team
• 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy Compact - Accelerating decarbonization of the world's electricity grids – Panel discussion with Kate Brandt, Chief Sustainability Officer Google; and Hastings Chikoko, Africa Regional Director at C40
• High level roundtable for non-party governments hosted by the First Minister and Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation.
• Under2 Coalition Ministerial meeting
• Bilateral meeting with Fridays for Future, youth led climate organisation
• Bilateral meeting with Benoit Charette, Minister of the Environment and Fight Against Climate Change, Government of Quebec
• Bilateral with Bérangère Couillard, Secretary of State for Ecology of France
• Bilateral meeting with Casey Katims, Executive Director of the US Climate Alliance
• Meeting with Elizabeth Wathuti, climate activist
• U2 Coalition MOU signing ceremony - Opening speech

• Bilateral meeting with President Mr. Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla, Andalucia, current Vice-President of the EU Committee of Regions
• Meeting with Loss and Damage grant partners, including representatives from International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD), Scottish Catholic Aid International Fund (SCIAF), Loss and Damage Youth Coalition (L&DYC), Climate Change and Sustainable Development, at Helvetas Bangladesh, Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC)
• Event: Two female leaders discuss climate-friendly forest policy - with Sheam Satkuru, Executive Director of the International Timber Trade Organisation
• Bilateral meeting with Susan Close, Deputy Premier, South Australia
• Bilateral meeting with Dr. A.K. Abdul Momen, the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh (previous Chair of the V20/CVF)
• Bilateral meeting with Ralph Regenvanu, Minister of Climate Change Vanuatu.
• "Shaping the climate and nature convergence to address the intertwined crises" - Panel discussion hosted by WWF
• Official UNFCCC Side event on climate justice with Malawian Minister – panel discussion
• IFAD panel discussion: “Why land rights matter in resilience and recovery”
• Panel discussion:  Keeping 1.5°C alive through growing the climate smart forestry based bio-economy
• Actions After Impacts - Accelerating Action by NSA/NPS to address climate losses and damages
• Energy Reception at COP27, jointly hosted by SSE, National Grid and Hitachi Energy
• Clean Heat Forum Roundtable – collectively raising ambition of clean heating policy solutions & technology deployment
• We Mean Business - Event with the Transport Decarbonisation Alliance
• U2 Policy Forum: blue carbon panel

The detailed information on the First Minister and Minister for Environment and Land Reform’s engagements at COP27 will be available at Ministerial engagements, travel and gifts - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) where such information is routinely published three months in arrears as per the ministerial code commitment.

In addition to supporting ministerial and senior official engagement, Scottish Government officials took part in events and discussions to promote Scotland’s influence on international climate change and learn from others to inform Scottish Government work with international best practice. 

Officials worked to raise the profile of Scotland’s climate justice approach and developing methodology. For example, officials spoke to an audience convened by ICLEI on how non-party governments can contribute on Loss and Damage. Officials also met with a range of loss and damage negotiators (from for example India, Ireland and Niger), supporting evidence-based negotiations, and building new relationships to share best practice.

Officials worked to ensure Scottish Government-funded research and programmes were well-positioned to both feed into and learn from other international disaster and climate programming. Officials met with representatives of UN agencies (for example, UNOCHR, World Food Programme, UN High Level Champions), and international CSOs to understand their objectives and ways of working, and share Scotland’s approach to loss and damage.  Many of these new relationships will be valuable during the consultation planned for the new loss and damage funding announced at COP27.   Officials attended a wide range of events to learn from others and improve Scottish Government programming.  For example, officials participated in the Global Environment Fund and Global Climate Fund events setting out the lessons learnt from their independent evaluations.

Officials met with members of the Under2 Coalition to consult on Scottish Government objectives as co-Chair, learn from others and discuss collaboration, following up on the initial Ministerial-level engagements. This contributed to new governments looking to both sign the Under2 Coalition MOU and join the U2 Coalition Policy Forum. 

Officials also supported Regions4 (Scotland is on the steering committee), to host events and engagements, with a particular focus on ensuring states and regions from the global south could feed into international processes, demonstrate the climate action they take in events and build relationships with other regions to advance climate action.

Officials also tracked UNFCCC negotiations, working closely with the UK Government. A key part of negotiations was Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE). Officials took part in UNFCCC / North Rhine Westphalia ACE Hub activity, representing Scottish Government interests.

In collaboration with The Gov Tech Lab Lithuania and the Egyptian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, the Scottish Government CivTech Alliance team convened three events in the Green Zone showcasing 15 global technologies that addressed climate change and loss and damage.