World leaders issue climate warnings
Damian Carrington
There have been warnings of the dangers of global heating for decades and Assoumani Azali, the president of Comoros, recalls one. He quotes then French president Jacques Chirac: “Our house is burning and we are looking elsewhere.” Chirac said that in 2002.
Twenty years later this warning is still relevant, says Azali. Cyclone Kenneth devastated his country in 2019, he says, and the damage is still being repaired.
Mohamed Menfi, the president of Libya, points out the danger of sea level rise. “We have the longest coastline in the Mediterranean sea, where 95% of our people live,” he says. He also says water is becoming scarcer, soil more saline and erosion is worsening. Despite the ongoing political crisis, Menfi says: “We can only be part of this world.”
Lazarus Chakwera, the president of Malawi, choose rhetorical power over the detail-driven speeches of many of the world leaders. “As nature lashes out, our citizens are losing patience,” he says. “To pass this test of leadership we must act with courage, urgency and humanity
Alexander van der Bellen, the president of Austria, recalls a high-profile piece of rhetoric by Greta Thunberg in in 2021: “There is far too much blah blah blah and far too little concrete action,” he says.
Key events
Damian Carrington
The most controversial issue at Cop27 is loss and damage, the funding demanded by poorer nations to rebuild after accelerating climate disasters, and which some campaigners call reparations. Ranil Wickremesinghe, president of Sri Lanka, raises this in the context of colonialism. “The practice of colonialism extracted resources from Asia and Africa to fuel industrialisation in rich nations,” he said. “We became poor from this plunder.”
Wickremesinghe says this industrialisation caused the climate crisis hitting poorer countries now. He also calls out rich nations: “The G7 and G20 are backtracking to use more fossil fuels – such double standards are unacceptable.” We will find out what has happened to global carbon emissions in 2022 later this week but the news is unlikely to be good.
Food, and the huge emissions its production causes, has often been marginalised at COPs but for Khurelsukh Ukhnaa, the president of Mongolia, it is his top priority amid hunger and high prices around the world. “Humans, food and soil are inextricably linked and fighting climate change is intrinsic to protecting soil,” he says. He does not mention tackling the terrible air pollution in Mongolian cities, but says the nation has joined the methane cutting pledge started at Cop26, which would help limit the impact of Mongolia’s coal mines.
Midterms results won’t derail US climate ambition – Kerry
Oliver Milman
John Kerry, the US climate envoy, has vowed that Joe Biden’s administration will press ahead on climate action regardless of the outcome of today’s midterm elections, which are expected to go badly for Democrats.
Kerry, speaking at the US pavilion at Cop27, said that he hoped Congress would agree to expand funding for developing countries to help deal with climate impacts but that “even if we don’t, folks, president Biden is more determined than ever to continue what we are doing”.
“Most of what we are doing cannot be changed by anyone else coming along,” Kerry added, noting that cities and states across America banded together to commit to the Paris climate agreement when Donald Trump removed the US from the pact when president.
US officials in Egypt hope that the inflation reduction act bill passed in August, which contains more than $370bn in climate spending and was called “one of the single most important pieces of legislation over the past 50 years or so” by Kerry in his speech, will drive deep cuts in emissions regardless of the midterms.
It’s widely expected, however, that Republicans will win at least one house of Congress in the elections. The GOP has decried what it calls Biden’s “radical green agenda” and could stall or hamper the rollout of measures aimed at boosting renewable energy deployment. Biden arrives at Cop27 on Friday, potentially in a downcast mood following the outcome of the elections.
Damian Carrington
Andrzej Duda, president of Poland, tells Cop27 the country is a “model” of sustainable development, which will surprise some in Europe who have long witnessed the coal-rich nation fighting tougher climate action.
At least he didn’t mention coal. Cop24 in Katowice, Poland, was infused for two weeks by the smell of burning coal.
Duda also says: “Let us not be hypocrites – it is easy for rich countries to boast of our action.” He says if manufacturing has moved to other countries, the importing countries still bear some responsibility. “There is just one climate.”
Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, president of Zimbabwe, is wearing a colourful scarf in his country’s national colours. The air conditioning is ridiculously cold in the plenary hall.
He calls for African unity at Cop27: “We must speak with one voice [and] act as a block of climate victims. Only then are we likely to carry the day and secure a healthy planet for present and future generations.” There is disagreement among African countries over the development of new oil and gas fields.
Climate finance is critical for progress at Cop27 – see this piece – and Mnangagwa says: “Those mostly responsible for the climate crisis must listen and prioritise climate finance.”
Cop27 has been termed the African Cop – but we have reported on the difficulties some African activists have faced in attending the summit. And yesterday our video reporter in Sharm el-Sheikh, Nikhita Chulani, spoke to the Ugandan activist Nyombi Morris who was turned away from the talks.
When 24-year-old Ugandan activist Nyombi Morris arrived in Egypt for the Cop27 climate summit he was turned away from the high-level talks because he did not have the right accreditation. Only country delegates and some members of the press were allowed in the events for heads of states and government officials.
“Why are we here?”, asked Nyombi, adding that the world leaders and negotiators who are currently deciding how far to push climate action need to quickly change the way they work and who they listen to, saying right now he doesn’t think it is right to truly call this an African Cop.
“You have to frontline the voices of African youth activists, because these are the innovators. These are the ones implementing actions, not our leaders, our leaders are just always in the office, but you are excluding us. So it is time to understand that this event is in Africa. We need to give African voices a chance … We cannot lead without knowledge.”
Allow Instagram content?
This article includes content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click ‘Allow and continue’.
Damian Carrington
The speeches by leaders have begun, with Gaston Browne, the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, kicking off with a legal warning to rich countries who have not provided adequate climate finance to date. “We will fight unrelentingly for climate justice,” including in the international courts, he said. Browne speaks for the Alliance of Small Island States, whose countries are set to sink beneath rising oceans.
Macky Sall, the president of Senegal, is next, stressing Africa’s need for “a just energy transition”, given that 600 million people on the continent do not have electricity.
Sall also echoes the words of Mia Mottley, the prime minister of Barbados, yesterday by saying: “We are being doubly punished”, once for the colonialism that underpinned the industrial revolution, and now by the impacts of the carbon emissions it caused.
Last year’s Cop26, in Glasgow, delivered a global climate deal and lots of promises, including on coal use, deforestation, methane and climate finance. So how much progress has been made? Our Guardian US climate reporter, Oliver Milman, has done an expert analysis of five key pledges and what has been achieved, or not. “The last year has been a missed opportunity by many countries,” David Waskow, the director of the international climate initiative at the World Resources Institute, told him.
What’s happening today?
Patrick Greenfield
In terms of highlights to watch out for today, Guardian reporter Patrick Greenfield has picked out the following:
“South African prime minister Cyril Ramaphosa is holding a press conference at 10am UK time where he is likely to speak about the landmark $8.5bn financing deal to help end its reliance on coal announced just a year ago at Cop26.
Ramaphosa said the deal with money from the USA, EU, UK, Germany and France was a “watershed moment” for the world’s 13th largest carbon emitter, according to the Global Carbon Atlas.
Mia Mottley, prime minister of Barbados, is also holding a press conference at 2.30pm UK time. She is one of the most influential voices from the Global South on loss and damage, a key issue at Cop27.
Tensions between China and Canada will raise concerns about the biodiversity Cop15, which the two countries are jointly hosting in Montreal next month. Side events for the key nature summit, where governments will agree this decade’s targets for halting the destruction of biodiversity, are being held during both weeks at the climate Cop27 in Egypt.
Yesterday, Justin Trudeau warned that China is “play[ing] aggressive games” to undermine democratic institutions amid reports Beijing actively interfered in Canada’s federal elections. It will be one to watch.”
Welcome to the Guardian’s live blog of the second day of Cop27, the United Nations climate conference taking place in Egypt. Yesterday, more than 100 world leaders gathered in Sharm el-Sheikh to hear the UN secretary general António Guterres warn that the world was on a “highway to hell” and the prime minster of Barbados, Mia Mottley, condemn industrialised nations for failing the developed world on the climate crisis. You can read a full report here. Today, we’ll hear more speeches from countries around the world, before the negotiations begin in earnest on Wednesday.
I’m Natalie Hanman, the Guardian’s head of environment. Please send me any thoughts, stories or tips via email natalie.hanman@theguardian.com or Twitter @NatalieHanman.
