Sharm el-Sheikh: The UN climate summit COP-27 began on Sunday with warnings of devastation intensifying if Egypt backtracks on emissions-cutting efforts. At the same time, after the severe weather disasters in the last year, the appeal for the poor countries to get compensation from the rich countries intensified. In the past few months, seasonal disasters have killed thousands of people around the world, displacing millions and causing property damage worth billions of dollars.
According to the news agency AFP news, massive floods devastated Pakistan and Nigeria. Whereas drought conditions worsened in Africa and western America. Cyclones devastated the Caribbean region and unprecedented heatwaves devastated life on three continents. The conference, at the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on the Red Sea coast, is taking place during a difficult period of a world economy slowed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a major energy crisis, rising inflation, and the Kovid epidemic.
Not allowed to miss the target
UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Steele said on the occasion that he would not approve of steps to back away from the goal of reducing greenhouse emissions by 45 percent by 2030. So that the goal of allowing global warming to rising no more than 1.5 ° C above the level of the end of the 19th century can be achieved. At the inauguration of the 13-day summit, Steele said that “we will hold people accountable, be it the President, the Prime Minister, the CEO”. Pollution will increase by 10 percent and the Earth’s surface will warm by 2.8C. Even if the promises made under the 2015 Paris Agreement are fulfilled, it will still be possible to reduce the temperature by only a tenth of a degree.
Eyes on money
At the COP-27 summit, the focus will be on the money for the cost of climate change as before. Which is a major point of impasse. Which has created a rift in relations between the rich and the rich countries who use fossil fuels indiscriminately and the poor countries suffering the worst consequences of climate change. The US and the European Union have pulled back for fear of creating an open assessment framework and are stressing the need for a separate funding method. The delegates on Sunday agreed to put the issue of ‘loss and damage’ on the COP-27 agenda, which is certainly the first step towards heated debates.
From most climate funding debt
Egypt’s COP-27 president Sameh Shoukry said the inclusion of this agenda reflects a sense of solidarity and sympathy for the suffering of the victims of climate-induced disasters. We are grateful to all the activists and civil society organizations who have continuously sought time to discuss the damages and funds for the damages, he said amidst applause. Shoukri also said that rich countries have not fulfilled their pledge to give $100 billion each year to help developing countries’ economies improve and strengthen against future climate change. He also said that most of the climate funding is based on debt.
Sino-US tension can worsen the game!
More than 120 world leaders will attend the summit on Monday and Tuesday after the first day of talks. Still, all eyes will be on Chinese President Xi Jinping. US President Joe Biden will also come. Cooperation between the US and China, the world’s two largest economies and major carbon polluters, has been one of the rare successes in the nearly 30-year story of UN climate negotiations, including the 2015 Paris Agreement. But Sino-US relations fell to their lowest level in 40 years after House Leader Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan and US sanctions on sales of high-end chip technology to China. Due to this there is doubt about the better results of COP-27.
