Earlier this month, a group of NYU Abu Dhabi undergraduates attended COP 27, the annual United Nations climate change conference, hosted in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. With the exception of the pandemic period, the university has maintained the tradition of supporting students attending COPs over the past few years. These efforts are laudable as they provide students with exposure to climate diplomacy and policy-making, fields that NYUAD students often tend to be interested in and pursue post-graduation. As we returned from Sharm El Sheikh, if there was anything that was clear, it was that the COP process — and international diplomacy at large — is at a unique crossroads.

COP 27 was the “African COP.” After years of ironing out details of the landmark Paris Agreement — in which countries committed to keeping global heating levels below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, while working toward limiting heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius — there have been growing calls for a greater focus on implementation of measures that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions, help manage climate risks, and build resilience and adaptive capacity in countries that are most vulnerable.

Over the past few years, we have witnessed a dramatic increase in climate disasters across the world: from the first climate change-induced famine in southern Madagascar, forest fires and record temperatures across Europe, and most recently, the megafloods that submerged a third of Pakistan and displaced 33 million in September 2022. And so, the needs of climate vulnerable nations and developing countries have now acquired considerable political capital. In Sharm El Sheikh, which is famed for its beachy resorts and under-stress coral reefs, high on the agenda for the Egyptian presidency and world leaders were issues relating to adaptation, economic and infrastructural recovery from damages due to climate disasters, and perhaps most influentially, the sensitive matter of climate finance.

And so the Egyptian Presidency had plenty on its plate — amid 600-plus fossil fuel lobbyists at Sharm, a global energy crisis due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and increased criticisms of Egypt’s alleged human rights violations ahead of the conference. Yet, late on Saturday night, on one of the last days of the summit, a historic breakthrough was achieved: an agreement to establish a loss and damage facility which would support developing nations in recovering from climate disasters, thanks to a pivot in policy by the United States and the European Union after years of objections during preceding COPs. The loss and damage fund will accompany GCF, the Global Climate Fund — with a goal of providing 100 billion U.S. dollars per annum — and a mosaic of other international financing solutions.

However, it is clear to us that the loss and damage fund, though novel and significant in its ambition, will only be one of the legacies of what happened in Sharm El Sheikh. Participating in the conference, though rewarding, gave us a dose of skepticisms about the COP process. Indecision, distraction, and obstruction were present in many negotiation committees as deliberations dragged on for days without clear outcomes. A mix of UN-speak, diplomatic decorum, and indifference was in stark contrast to the sense of urgency expressed in global climate protests and marches by climate activists in the past years. Despite our faith in multilateralism, our time shadowing negotiation committees confirmed the presence of many elements that COPs are critiqued for: lengthy processes, limited accessibility due to economic and political constraints, and a site for international spectacle.

While writing this piece, one of us is reminded of a time in a technology transfer negotiation when an hour was spent discussing whether the parties should “recognize,” “note,” or “laud” the work of a subsidiary UN body. Detail and language are of great importance, but it is undoubtable that consensus building is not every party’s priority.

And perhaps, there is another, more powerful, yet disempowering, legacy of COP 27: Over 40,000 people flying across the world to visit glitzy corporate-style pavilions, stay two weeks at expensive beach houses and resorts, participate in well-intentioned side-events and panels which are generally unclear in their aims, and attend lavish corporate parties by the Red Sea — all under a political regime which allegedly has a dismal track record on human rights issues. A COP where civil society engagement was sidelined and private capture of the space increased.

These are uncomfortable contentions that the UNFCCC, the international community, and everyone in attendance is left to reckon with. How should the COP presidency and the UN work together to enable meaningful participation of civil society? How can the COP process be revisualized to meet the needs of the decade of action? These are important considerations we are left mulling over.

The African COP, despite its deficits, is educational. There are lessons here for UNFCCC, future COP presidencies, and private and non-profit stakeholders. To tackle a credibility crisis, the UNFCCC secretariat must establish and member states should endorse stricter guidelines on the role and expectations from COP presidencies. A core part of these guidelines must ensure that civil society engagement is recognized as central to the COP process and spaces and resources need to be dedicated on conference grounds to support grassroots advocacy, instead of shipping it away to the desert.

Moreover, engagement from fossil fuel actors and Coca Cola-like sponsors need to be scaled back; this undermines public trust, detracts from negotiations, and is antithetical to the idea of COP as a space for sharp focus on scaling up climate ambition and implementing climate justice. Nonprofits and corporations should also be more strategic about their engagement by identifying alignments with agenda items in negotiation committees and the best ways to support these, instead of crowding conference grounds with well-intentioned but often unclear initiatives or panels. If nonprofits and corporations cannot find strategic alignments, their energies and resources will likely be better invested elsewhere so that COP does not become a 40,000 people-strong, annual climate-themed festival.

With the first global stocktake of progress toward achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement and in the light of the UAE’s successful track record in pursuing the energy transition domestically and abroad, the incoming UAE presidency is uniquely poised to revitalize the COP process in November 2023 and lead international climate action. But in this pursuit, it must return to the drawing board, and design a COP process that fits its purpose and ambition.