Gas Detection at COP 27: Waste, Conventions and Hydrogen

This year’s Conference of the Parties to the United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change, otherwise known as COP, is taking place in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. It has an expansive programme, with all aspects of the climate crisis to be brought under the microscope. As always, the Conference will focus on delineating the financial, legal and regulatory structures necessary for the restriction of global warming to temperatures less than 2°C above pre-industrial levels.  

One of the sessions on the agenda is entitled ‘Reinventing Waste Solutions for a Better Future’, in which a panel of Egyptian ministers will discuss the present and future of the waste-management ecosystem in Africa. Given that waste is a significant source of greenhouse gases like methane, measures to curb these emissions will be vital in global efforts to reverse the trend of warming. Ultimately, the session aims to introduce delegates to a range of practicable solutions and on-the-ground projects. It is expected to consider new monitoring conventions and frameworks for compliance.  

Relatedly, conventions on the monitoring of carbon emissions, in particular, are set to be re-considered. In a session entitled ‘Harmonizing our Efforts’, delegates will address global and regional environmental conventions, assessments and outlooks. In order to focus on recent results from assessment processes, the session will consider a number of reports, including the Global Environment Outlook, the Africa Environment Outlook, the World Health Organisation’s Health and Climate Change Survey, and the Emissions Gap. The discussion will centre on what the data can tell us about the efficacy of current and past environmental policies in the interest of identifying options for the future, as well as reviewing monitoring protocols and challenges.  

Besides waste management and the harmonisation of conventions, COP27, like COP26, is placing a particular emphasis on the potentials of hydrogen as a green energy-source, devoting a number of sessions to the topics during Energy Day. In a session entitled ‘Policies: A Catalyser for the Energy Transition and Sustainable Development’, panels will imagine a transition from global dependency on fossil fuels to renewables-based economy, with a particular emphasis on the development of broad-based value-chains for green hydrogen, of which quality assurance and secure transportation are integral links. It is posited that green hydrogen and its derivatives (e.g., green ammonia and e-fuels) will be critical to reduce the emissions of hard-to-abate and hard-to-electrify sectors such as heavy industries, aviation, shipping and heavy road transportation. In order to meet these challenges, the session will bring together technological innovators, policy experts, regulators, economists, and financial leaders to discuss the latest developments in this field and the mechanisms required to scale-up these solutions.