On November 7, dozens of presidents and prime ministers addressed the globe at a meeting on climate change after the head of the UN warned that we were on a motorway to climatic hell with our foot on the accelerator.
The annual United Nations-led international climate negotiations got underway on November 6 with António Guterres, the U.N. secretary-general, setting the tone. The world’s most vulnerable people are being impacted the hardest by the escalating threats of conflict, global warming, and economic crises.
Later, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak urged nations to increase their investments in renewable energy as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. According to Mr. Sunak, “Putin’s abominable war in Ukraine and rising energy costs worldwide are not an excuse to go slowly on climate change.” They give us cause to move more quickly.
The war in Ukraine, according to French President Emmanuel Macron, shouldn’t alter nations’ pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
The World Meteorological Organization reported on November 6 that the planet had likely experienced its warmest eight years on record, including every year since countries came together in 2015 to create the historic Paris agreement, which was intended to shift the global economy away from fossil fuels and slow global warming. These alarming new findings cast a shadow over the opening of the talks.
The main point of contention in this year’s negotiations is the issue of what wealthy, industrialized nations, which produce the majority of greenhouse gas emissions, owe to those suffering the most from climate hazards. On November 6, there was some progress made in this area, addressing the contentious question of who will pay for the irreparable harm that climate change is causing to the world’s most vulnerable.
The meeting will be held in Egypt, whose government has made an effort to position itself as the developing world’s climate champion. However, those initiatives have occasionally appeared at odds with the nation’s alarming human rights and environmental records. Alaa Abd el-Fattah, Egypt’s most well-known political dissident, promised to start a water strike as the summit got underway. He has been on a hunger strike for more than 200 days in an effort to get the government to release him.
Additionally, protests, which were a common occurrence at previous COP summits, have been conspicuously absent thus far in Egypt, in part due to tight security measures and the conference site’s distance from major cities.
The opportunity to pressure governments to take tougher action against climate change was still seized by activists despite the fact that protesters were largely absent from the streets. On November 7, environmental organizations demanded the creation of a fossil fuel nonproliferation treaty that would eventually halt the development of any new coal, oil, or gas projects.
The conference is referred to as COP27 because it is the Conference of Parties to the United Nations convention’s 27th session. More than 44,000 people, including representatives of the government, businesses, and civil society groups, have registered to attend.
The discussions take place at the conclusion of a year marked by extreme heat waves in the northern hemisphere, devastating flooding in Pakistan and Nigeria, and a punishing drought in China.
110 heads of state and government are speaking at the conference, which is more than at many prior climate conferences, according to a list published by the UN. Only seven of them are women.
In her remarks on November 7, Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley made a historical connection between the inability of vulnerable nations to deal with climate hazards and the fact that the Global North still controlled the resources necessary for the Global South to transition away from fossil fuels.
She also reiterated a call for international development organizations like the World Bank to be overhauled.
News Mania Desk
