dpa
Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt
World leaders on Monday opened a climate summit in Egypt with a call from UN chief António Guterres for a “climate solidarity” pact between the developed and emerging economies.
It would be “a pact in which all countries make an extra effort to reduce emissions this decade in line with the 1.5-degree [Celsius] goal,” Guterres said at the summit in the Egyptian coastal resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
“A pact in which wealthier countries and international financial institutions provide financial and technical assistance to help emerging economies speed their own renewable energy transition.”
Guterres also sent out a stern warning: “We are in the fight of our lives. And we are losing. Greenhouse gas emissions keep growing.
Global temperatures keep rising.” The world is on a “highway to climate hell,” he said. For him, humanity has a stark choice: “cooperate or perish.” The two-day climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, attended by dozens of heads of state and government, is seen as a bid to provide much-needed political momentum for efforts to curb global warming.
The summit is being held a day after the start of a parallel UN climate conference, known as COP27, in the Red Sea resort.
Negotiators at the two-week COP27 are grappling with how global warming can still be contained and how to mitigate the financial costs of climate change, mainly for vulnerable countries.
The goal is to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as stated in the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Guterres said this goal is “on life support and the machines are rattling.” The climate events are being held amid multiple crises surrounding food, energy and rising inflation in economies across the world - exacerbated by the war in Ukraine - and expectations for major breakthroughs are seen to be low.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday cautioned against neglecting measures to protect the climate despite the Russian war in Ukraine.
“We will not sacrifice our climate commitments to Russia’s energy threat,” he told the summit in Sharm el-Sheikh.
The many successive crises “could lead to many giving in and saying: ‘We have other priorities, the climate can wait.’ But the climate emergency is happening now and not tomorrow.” According to Macron, what was said at the last climate conference in Glasgow remains valid, even if the world is no longer the same as a result of the Ukraine war.
The talks in Egypt are happening after climate-related disasters, including devastating floods, have taken a huge toll on lives and livelihoods in several parts of the globe.
In a sign of solidarity with flood-battered Pakistan, Guterres urged world support for the south Asian country’s rehabilitation and reconstruction.
“Let’s be clear, Pakistan deserves massive support from the international community,” the UN chief said at a joint press conference with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Sharm el-Sheikh.
Sharif said the disaster has caused estimated damage of around $30 billion.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi, whose country has close ties with Russia, on Monday called for an end to the war in Ukraine, which has sent food and energy prices soaring and put economies worldwide under stress..
“I’m making an appeal to stop this war,” said al-Sissi without directly blaming Russia for starting the violence.
He called for “swift and effective” action on climate change.
“Our people expect us to take real, tangible steps towards reducing emissions and building capability for adaptation to consequences of climate change and providing the necessary financing for the developing countries,” he said at the summit opening.
In 2009, the developed countries pledged to provide $100 billion a year in finance by 2020 for climate protection in poor countries. The pledge remains largely unfulfilled.
The talks in Egypt mark their return to Africa after six years, with COP22 held in Morocco in the north of the continent in 2016.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will host the next year’s edition of the COP.
UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed told the summit that in the lead-up to COP28, his country is increasingly focussing on implementation of pledges from previous conferences.
“We want to bring everyone on the same page to collectively drive an organized and effective transition in the global energy sector,” he added.
