Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
In the presence of leaders from kings, presidents and princes of different countries of the world, the work of the climate summit "COP 27" begins today in the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh to revive the struggle to combat climate change.. At the same time, the convening of the summit in this place is considered a global testimony to the return of security, stability and prestige Egypt, especially as this summit comes in light of a global economic crisis due to the consequences of Corona and the Russian war on Ukraine.. In a report by Agence France-Presse today, Sunday, it was reported that about 200 countries will meet as of Sunday in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt in an attempt to give a new impetus to combating climate warming. And its repercussions, which ensue in a world divided and anxious from various other crises.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stressed last week that the fight for climate "has become a matter of life and death for our security today and our survival tomorrow" with unprecedented floods in Pakistan, heatwaves in Europe, cyclones, wildfires and droughts...
He stressed that the 27th United Nations Climate Conference (COP27), which kicks off on Sunday for two weeks, "must lay the foundations for faster and bolder climate action today and during the current decade, in which it will determine whether the fight for climate will win or lose."
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak plans to call on world leaders gathered at the COP27 summit to "not renege on the promise" to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
"When the world met in Glasgow last year, countries agreed on a historic roadmap to tackle catastrophic climate warming (...) it is more important than ever to fulfill this promise," Sunak said in a statement released by his office on Saturday before heading to Egypt to participate in COP27. .
"Combating climate change is not just morally correct, it is fundamental to our future prosperity and security," he added, speaking of the consequences of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on energy supplies and the need to "end our dependence on fossil fuels."
"We have to move forward faster and bigger in the transition to renewables and I will make sure the UK is at the forefront of this global change," Sunak added.
Greenhouse gas emissions should be reduced by 45% by 2030 in an effort to limit climate warming to 1.5°C compared to the pre-industrial era, the most ambitious goal of the Paris climate agreement.
However, the current pledges of the signatory countries to the agreement, if respected, will lead to a rise of between 5 and 10 percent, putting the world on a path leading to a temperature increase of 2.4 degrees Celsius by the end of this century. This is far from the main goal of the Paris Agreement compared to the era when humans began to widely use fossil energy sources of coal, oil and gas, which are responsible for warming.
With the policies adopted today, the world is heading for an increase of 2.8 degrees Celsius in temperature, which is a catastrophic level.
Guterres regrets that the climate has fallen to second place in the list of priorities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, economic crises, and energy and food crises.
"We've known very fraught stages in the past," such as the US withdrawal under Donald Trump from the Paris climate agreement, said Alden Meyer of think tank E3G, a longtime follower of climate negotiations. "But I've never seen anything like this." He described what is happening as the "perfect storm".
In this atmosphere, and despite the pledges made at COP26 in Glasgow, only about twenty countries raised their goals, while the United Nations says that there is “no credible path” to achieving the goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
After the opening of the COP27 conference in Egypt on Sunday, more than 120 heads of state and government will meet on Monday and Tuesday for a summit that will give impetus to these two-week negotiations.
Chinese President Xi Jinping will be absent from the summit, while US President Joe Biden will attend the Sharm el-Sheikh conference in a quick stop on November 11, while cooperation is vital between the two largest polluters in the world, whose relations are very tense. However, they may meet in Bali the following week on the sidelines of the G-20 summit.
The G20 countries are responsible for 80% of global emissions, but the world's richest countries are accused of not shouldering their responsibilities in terms of goals and aid to developing countries as well.
The resentment of the world's poorest countries, which are not responsible for warming but are most vulnerable to its repercussions, will be at the heart of the COP27 conference.
- 'Green wash' -
The promises of the northern countries to raise their aid to one hundred billion dollars annually as of 2020, to the countries of the south to reduce emissions and prepare for the repercussions of climate change, have not yet been fulfilled. The countries of the South are also asking for additional funding dedicated to the "losses and damages" they have incurred so far.
However, the developed countries are very reticent about this mechanism, and contented themselves last year by accepting to open a "dialogue" on the issue that is scheduled until 2024. However, it is expected that they will have to agree to formally include the issue on the agenda of the Sharm el-Sheikh conference.
"Everyone agrees that a way must be found to solve this. But the difficulty lies in the details," said Wael Abul-Magd, special representative of the Egyptian presidency at COP27.
"Reaching an agreement on the mechanism of losses and damages will be the measure of COP27's success or failure," said Munir Akram, Pakistan's ambassador to the United Nations and head of the Group of 77 + China, a powerful negotiating bloc that includes more than 130 developing countries.
"The will creates miracles," Akram stressed during an interview with AFP.
There is ambiguity about the adoption of a special mechanism for financing "losses and damages" or about a new goal to continue the 100 billion dollar initiative from 2025. Small island states negotiator Michai Robertson said that funding needs "are in the billions of billions", considering that it is impossible to achieve this Without the private sector, "reaching an agreement on the mechanism for loss and damage will be the measure of COP27's success or failure."
"The will creates miracles," Akram stressed during an interview with AFP.
There is ambiguity about the adoption of a special mechanism for financing "losses and damages" or about a new goal to continue the 100 billion dollar initiative from 2025. The small island states negotiator Michai Robertson said that the financing needs "are in the billions of billions", considering that it is impossible to achieve this without the private sector.
The spotlight will also be on private sector undertakings with the publication of a report by the United Nations Group of Experts tasked with setting benchmarks to assess carbon neutrality targets for companies, cities as well as regions and investors.
"The world cannot afford more green-washing, false or belated moves," Guterres said last week.
Egypt, which hosts the conference on behalf of African countries, has allocated a space for activists in Sharm El-Sheikh, while it is expected that there will be no street demonstrations, as demonstrations are prohibited in Egypt. Previous editions of the Conference of the Parties witnessed large demonstrations of environmental activists.
However, civil society in Egypt will try to seize the opportunity of the conference to shed more light on the fate of prisoners of conscience in the country, who number more than 60,000, according to NGOs, with a special focus on the activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, who was sentenced at the end of 2021 to five years in prison after being convicted accused of "spreading false news". He has been on hunger strike for seven months.