COP

UN Climate Change Conference (COP)

The energy sector has a central role to play in facilitating economy-wide decarbonisation, and while setting ambitious decarbonisation targets is the role of governments, the national, sub-national and supra-national energy regulatory bodies must be involved to turn these policies into reality.

CEER participates in the annual Climate Change Conferences (COPs) through its members to highlight the role of energy regulators in the energy transition. CEER is also an admitted Observer Organisation (NGO category) by the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat.

COP27

The 27th UN Conference of the Parties (COP27) took place from 6-18 November 2022 in Sharm-El-Sheikh, Egypt and gathered Heads of State, ministers and negotiators, along with climate activists, mayors, civil society representatives and CEOs for the largest annual assembly on climate action.

In the midst of a global energy crisis, in addition to facing record greenhouse gas concentrations, and increasing extreme weather events, COP27 sought to secure renewed solidarity between countries, to deliver on the Paris Agreement.

In a COP27 side event organised by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, Claudio Marcantonini, lead drafter of the ACER-CEER European Green Deal Regulatory White Paper, Co-Chair of the CEER Regulatory Gas Strategy Workstream and Member of the ACER Gas Working Group was invited to participate in a discussion on the theme of Energy trade in a low carbon world: what role for hydrogen?

The event saw the launch of the European Commission’s Global Energy and Climate Outlook (GECO) 2022 report. Mr Marcantonini contributed to the event by speaking about ACER and CEER’s proposals on the regulation of hydrogen.

COP26

The 26^th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) hosted in Glasgow, UK, took place from 31 October – 12 November 2021 and was a key moment in the global effort against climate change. It marked the fifth COP since the Paris Agreement, and was therefore the first review and a moment to step up ambition.

Great Britain’s energy regulator, CEER Member Ofgem, used the occasion of COP26 to highlight the role of energy regulators in the energy transition, and increase knowledge sharing on decarbonisation.

Ofgem hosted a number of themed COP26 events, and also hosted a number of events over COP26 itself, in conjunction with relevant international organisations. More information can be found on Ofgem’s website: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/green-fair-future-ofgems-cop26-programme and details of Ofgem’s COP26 events can be found here: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/ofgem-cop26

CEER itself is an admitted Observer Organisation (NGO category) by the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat.

COP26 also provided the opportunity to launch a new platform: The Regulatory Energy Transition Accelerator (RETA/the Accelerator). RETA is a platform for global collaboration between regulators to increase the pace of the energy transition in order to reach our climate goals.

You can find the recording of the launch event session (‘Accelerating the Energy Transition Conference’) here, along with recordings of the other Ofgem events run throughout COP26.