The Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 27) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, concluded with a landmark agreement to provide loss and damage funding to vulnerable countries that are heavily affected by climate disasters. The creation of a special loss and damage fund marked an important step forward in international climate negotiations.

Taking place within the context of a difficult geopolitical environment, COP 27 achieved the adoption of a package of decisions through which countries reaffirmed their commitment to limit the rise in global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The package aims to strengthen action by countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the inevitable impacts of climate change, as well as increase support from developed countries in terms of funding, technology, and capacity building needed by developing countries.

Governments agreed to establish a transitional committee to make recommendations at next year’s COP 28 in Abu Dhabi, UAE, on how to implement both the new funding arrangements and the new loss and damage fund. The first meeting of the transitional committee is expected to take place before the end of March 2023.

The Bulgarian delegation to the 27th UN Climate Change Conference was led by President Rumen Radev. The Minister of Environment and Water Rositsa Karamfilova and the Minister of Energy Rosen Hristov participated.

At the highest level forum during the Conference (November 7-8), President Rumen Radev announced Bulgaria’s readiness to apply to host the 29th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Climate Change (COP 29), which will be held at the end of 2024. The presidency of the COP is held on a rotating basis and is determined by the five regional groups within the framework of the Convention. For 2024, the Eastern European group, consisting of 23 countries - Bulgaria, as well as 10 other members of the European Union, the countries of the Western Balkans, from the Eastern European region, and Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova, Russia, and Ukraine, are to make a decision on who will be the host.

Minister Karamfilova held talks so as to explore the attitudes to support our candidacy, to exchange information about the application, the organization, and the conduct of the COP. Meetings were held with the heads of delegations of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Greece, the Republic of Moldova, as well as with high-level representatives of the delegation of the United Arab Emirates, in their capacity as president of COP 28 in 2023. The candidature of Bulgaria to host COP 29 was welcomed by all partners with whom formal and informal talks were held, as well as by the Secretariat of the Convention.

Upon our country’s announcement, Armenia, Belarus and the Czech Republic also declared their intention to apply to host the world conference in 2024. The Eastern European Group at the UN is due to hold consultations on specific parameters of the organization proposed by the four candidate-host countries, with the aim of deciding on the host no later than mid-2023. Given the heterogeneous geopolitical composition of the regional group, the outcome of the consultations is difficult to foresee, but Bulgaria is determined to mobilize serious capacity to prepare a competitive bid.