The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) was launched in the Egyptian city of Sharm El-Sheikh, with the participation of delegations from about 200 countries and organizations concerned with environment and climate affairs, after a harsh year that witnessed disasters related to weather fluctuations that made the need for concrete measures urgent.
More than 100 heads of state and government will meet on Monday and Tuesday at a summit that will give impetus to these two-week negotiations.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is absent from the summit, while US President Joe Biden is expected to attend.
It is scheduled to discuss the issue of financing losses for poor countries so that they can deal with the consequences of climate change;
This funding in question is estimated at $100 billion annually from developed countries to low-income countries most affected by climate change.
The summit will also review how to implement the Paris climate agreement, which aims to prevent the Earth's temperature from exceeding the threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Inaction warning
UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Steele has warned of "inaction" to curb global warming.
He said during the summit's opening session that he would not be a "guardian of inaction" on the goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent by 2030 to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above late 19th century levels.
"We will hold people accountable, whether they are presidents, prime ministers or chief executives," Steele added, noting that "the essence of implementation is that everyone does what they can every day to tackle the climate crisis."
For his part, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, president of the 27th session of the conference, stressed that "it is time to move from negotiations and pledges to a stage where implementation is a priority," noting that "we do not have the luxury to continue on this approach."
“Over the course of the year we have witnessed painful events in Pakistan, our African continent, various parts of Europe and the United States. These events and the resulting devastation are a wake-up call that reverberates across our planet to act urgently to take all necessary measures to implement our pledges,” he added.
In his opening speech, Alok Sharma, president of the 26th edition of the conference, said, "I understand that leaders around the world have faced this year with different priorities, we must be clear (..) inaction can only postpone the climate catastrophe."
"How many wake-up calls do the world and world leaders really need?!" he added.
Loss and damage
The Conference of the Parties on Climate (COP27) will address the issue of financing the "loss and damage" of climate change, according to the agenda unanimously adopted Sunday at the opening of the conference.
This came against the backdrop of the rich countries reneging on their promises to raise their aid to 100 billion dollars annually, starting from 2020, for poor countries in order to reduce emissions and prepare for the repercussions of climate change.
The delegates to the conference agreed, after talks that took place late on Saturday, to include the sensitive issue of whether rich countries should compensate poor countries most affected by the consequences of climate change on the official agenda for the first time.
For more than 10 years, rich countries have refused to have formal discussions about what is referred to as the losses and damages or the money they give to help poor countries deal with the effects of global warming.
Rich nations blocked a proposal to fund loss and damage at the COP26 conference in Glasgow last year and instead supported a new 3-year dialogue on funding discussions.
Shoukry said discussions of losses and damages now on the agenda at COP 27 will not guarantee compensation or necessarily acknowledgment of liability but aim to lead to a decisive decision "no later than 2024."
The issue could be more tense this year than at previous conferences because the Ukraine war, rising energy prices and the threat of economic recession have made governments reluctant to pledge money to poor countries.
temperature in the past eight years
In conjunction with the conference, a United Nations report on Sunday, which dealt with the rapid rise in global warming, said that the last eight years - if expectations for 2022 are proven - will be hotter than any year prior to 2015.
The World Meteorological Organization, coinciding with the opening of the Conference of the Parties on Climate (COP27), indicated in a video clip broadcast in Sharm El-Sheikh on Sunday, an acceleration in the pace of rising sea levels, melting glaciers, torrential rains, heat waves and the deadly disasters they cause.
Commenting on the report in a video clip broadcast in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, the Secretary-General of the United Nations said, "With the launch of the COP27 Climate Conference, our planet is issuing a distress call," describing the report as a "narrative of climate chaos."
The Earth's temperature has risen by more than 1.1 degrees Celsius since the end of the nineteenth century, and nearly half of this warming has been recorded in the last thirty years, the report showed.
"The higher the warming, the worse the consequences," said WMO Director-General Petteri Taalas.
The surface waters of the oceans, which absorb more than 90% of the heat accumulated by emissions caused by human activity, recorded record levels in 2021, and their temperature increased rapidly, especially during the last twenty years.
Marine heat waves also rose, with devastating repercussions on coral reefs and on half a billion people who depend on the seas for food and livelihoods.
In general, 55% of the ocean surface waters experienced at least one marine heat wave in 2022, according to the report.
Sea-level rise has doubled in the last 30 years due to melting rivers and ice sheets, threatening tens of millions of people living in coastal lowlands.