SHARM EL SHEIKH (Reuters) – UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned world leaders at the climate summit in Egypt on Monday. The world leaders met to face calls for deeper emissions cuts and financial aid to developing countries already devastated by the effects of rising temperatures. “Humanity has a choice. Cooperate or perish,” Guterres said at the UN COP27 summit.
“It’s either a climate solidarity pact or a collective suicide pact,” said Guterres, accelerating the transition to renewable energy and helping richer polluting countries save poorer ones least responsible for heat trap emissions.
I called out to the world countries around the world are grappling with escalating natural disasters, from devastating floods in Nigeria and Pakistan, to droughts in the United States and Africa, to exceptional heat waves on three continents this year alone.
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said that “disaster after disaster is happening”. “Isn’t it time to put an end to all this suffering?”
But Russia’s Many other crises from the war Rising inflation and the continued impact of the Covid pandemic have raised concerns in Ukraine that climate change will lower the government’s list of priorities.
However, Guterres said climate change cannot be put on hold. He called for a “historic” agreement between rich emitting countries and emerging economies that would result in countries doubling their emission reductions and keeping temperature rise as the more ambitious target of the Paris Agreement. He said it would be capped at 1.5 degrees Celsius above one pre-industrial level.
On current trends, by the end of the decade carbon pollution will increase by 10% and the world will be on track to rise to 2.8°C. “We are on the road to climate hell with the accelerator on,” said Guterres.
The UN Secretary-General said the goal should be to provide renewable and affordable energy for all, and called on the United States and China in particular to take the lead.
On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron called on the United States, China and other rich countries outside Europe to “step up” efforts to cut emissions and provide financial aid to other countries.
President Macron said on the sidelines of COP27 that “Europeans will pay” climate activists in France and Africa. “We are the only ones paying.”
President Xi Jinping of China, the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter, did not attend the summit. US President Joe Biden will attend his COP27 later this week after Tuesday’s midterm elections that could put Republicans in the lead of Congress against international action on climate change. Pakistan, which chairs the powerful G77+China negotiating bloc of over 130 developing countries, has made this issue a priority. The US and EU have been hesitant to propose for years, fearing it would lead to open outcomes.
