UN climate summit opens with warning against 'backsliding'

UN climate summit opens with warning against 'backsliding'

The COP27 comes in a fraught year marked by Russia's war on Ukraine, an energy crunch, soaring inflation and the lingering effects from the Covid pandemic
The COP27 comes in a fraught year marked by Russia's war on Ukraine, an energy crunch, soaring inflation and the lingering effects from the Covid pandemic. Photo: JOSEPH EID / AFP
Source: AFP

PAY ATTENTION: Сheck out news that is picked exactly for YOU ➡️ find “Recommended for you” block on the home page and enjoy!

The UN's COP27 climate summit kicked off Sunday in Egypt with warnings against backsliding on efforts to cut emissions and calls for rich nations to compensate poor countries after a year of extreme weather disasters.

Just in the past few months, climate-induced catastrophes have killed thousands, displaced millions and cost billions in damages across the world.

Massive floods devastated swaths of Pakistan and Nigeria, droughts worsened in Africa and the western United States, cyclones whipped the Caribbean, and unprecedented heatwaves seared three continents.

Humans and the climate
Chart showing a selection of indicators of human action and impact on the climate. Photo: Simon MALFATTO / AFP/File
Source: AFP

The conference in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh comes in a fraught year marked by Russia's war on Ukraine, an energy crunch, soaring inflation and the lingering effects from the Covid pandemic.

Read also

COP27 summit racing against the climate clock

PAY ATTENTION: Click “See First” under the “Following” tab to see YEN.com.gh News on your News Feed!

But Simon Stiell, the UN's climate change executive secretary, said he would not be a "custodian of backsliding" on the goal of slashing greenhouse emissions 45 percent by 2030 to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius above late-19th-century levels.

"We will be holding people to account, be they presidents, prime ministers, CEOs," Stiell said as the 13-day summit opened.

"The heart of implementation is everybody everywhere in the world every single day doing everything they possibly can to address the climate crisis," he said.

Vegan activists demonstrate on the first day of the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference, held in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh
Vegan activists demonstrate on the first day of the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference, held in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Photo: JOSEPH EID / AFP
Source: AFP

Current trends would see carbon pollution increase 10 percent by the end of the decade and Earth's surface heat up 2.8C, according to findings unveiled last week.

Promises made under the 2015 Paris Agreement would, if kept, only shave off a few tenths of a degree.

Read also

Surge in claims puts UK asylum system under pressure

"Whilst I do understand that leaders around the world have faced competing priorities this year, we must be clear: as challenging as our current moment is, inaction is myopic and can only defer climate catastrophe," said Alok Sharma, British president of the previous COP26 as he handed over the chairmanship to Egypt.

"How many more wake-up calls does the world -- and world leaders -- actually need?", he said.

Money focus

The COP27 summit will focus like never before on money -- a major sticking point that has soured relations between countries that got rich burning fossil fuels and the poorer ones suffering from the worst consequences of climate change.

The COP27 summit will focus like never before on money, a major sticking point
The COP27 summit will focus like never before on money, a major sticking point. Photo: - / Egyptian Presidency of COP27/AFP
Source: AFP

The United States and the European Union -- fearful of creating an open-ended reparations framework -- have dragged their feet and challenged the need for a separate funding stream.

Delegates agreed on Sunday to put the "loss and damage" issue on the COP27 agenda, a first step toward what are sure to be fraught discussions.

Read also

S.Africa to press rich nations for more money at COP27

Inclusion of the agenda item "reflects a sense of solidarity and empathy for the suffering of the victims of climate induced disasters," said COP27 president Sameh Shoukry of Egypt.

"We all owe a debt of gratitude to activists and civil society organisations who have persistently demanded the space to discuss funding for loss and damage," he said to applause.

Climate change is one of the factors blamed for the disappearance of Lake Poopo, once Bolivia's second-largest
Climate change is one of the factors blamed for the disappearance of Lake Poopo, once Bolivia's second-largest. Photo: Aizar RALDES / AFP
Source: AFP

Shoukry also noted that rich nations have not fulfilled a separate pledge to deliver $100 billion per year to help developing countries green their economies and build resilience against future climate change.

He also lamented that most climate financing is based on loans.

"We do not have the luxury to continue this way. We have to change our approaches to this existential threat," he said, calling for solutions that "prove we are serious about not leaving anyone behind."

US-China tensions

After the first day of talks, more than 120 world leaders will join the summit on Monday and Tuesday.

Read also

At 'African COP', continent's climate needs may go unmet

The most conspicuous no-show at the UN climate forum will be China's Xi Jinping
The most conspicuous no-show at the UN climate forum will be China's Xi Jinping. Photo: Noel CELIS / AFP
Source: AFP

The most conspicuous no-show will be China's Xi Jinping, whose leadership was renewed last month at a Communist Party Congress.

US President Joe Biden has said he will come, but only after legislative elections on Tuesday that could see either or both houses of Congress fall into the hands of Republicans hostile to international action on climate change.

Cooperation between the United States and China -- the world's two largest economies and carbon polluters -- has been crucial to rare breakthroughs in the nearly 30-year saga of UN climate talks, including the 2015 Paris Agreement.

But Sino-US relations have sunk to a 40-year low after a visit to Taiwan by House leader Nancy Pelosi and a US ban on the sale of high-level chip technology to China, leaving the outcome of COP27 in doubt.

A meeting between Xi and Biden at the G20 summit in Bali days before the UN climate meeting ends, if it happens, could be decisive.

Read also

Egypt's COP27 climate summit comes at a 'watershed moment'

One bright spot at COP27 will be the arrival of Brazilian president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose campaign vowed to protect the Amazon and reverse the extractive policies of outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro.

New feature: Сheck out news that is picked for YOU ➡️ find “Recommended for you” block on the home page and enjoy!

Source: AFP

Authors:
AFP avatar

AFP AFP text, photo, graphic, audio or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. AFP news material may not be stored in whole or in part in a computer or otherwise except for personal and non-commercial use. AFP will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions in any AFP news material or in transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages whatsoever. As a newswire service, AFP does not obtain releases from subjects, individuals, groups or entities contained in its photographs, videos, graphics or quoted in its texts. Further, no clearance is obtained from the owners of any trademarks or copyrighted materials whose marks and materials are included in AFP material. Therefore you will be solely responsible for obtaining any and all necessary releases from whatever individuals and/or entities necessary for any uses of AFP material.