U.N.’s flagship climate conference, the COP27 climate summit opens in Egypt
Top officials urged affluent nations to finally fulfil their broken $100 billion promise as the U.N.’s premier climate summit got underway, and the contentious topic of reparations was added for the first time to the official agenda. Delegates from around 200 nations have gathered in Egypt’s Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh for the COP27 meeting, which officially began on Sunday, to discuss how to deal with the climate catastrophe.
It comes after a string of bizarre extreme weather occurrences across the globe. For instance, in just the past few months, China experienced its most intense and prolonged hot on record, Nigeria experienced its worst floods in a decade, and one-third of Pakistan was entirely drowned by historic flooding.
The historic 2015 Paris Agreement set an aspirational temperature goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius. Because of the increased likelihood of so-called tipping points over this level, it is acknowledged as a key global aim. Small adjustments can cause significant changes in the overall life support system of the Earth at these thresholds.
In Egypt, nations from the Global South will be seeking assurances that the $100 billion climate funding pledge made by wealthy nations in 2009 to assist low-income countries in reducing the effects of and adapting to the climate emergency will finally be met. Low-income nations have often demanded a shift to grant-based financing rather than additional loans due to their heavy debt loads.
In a speech on Monday at the UN climate meeting in Egypt, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will urge world leaders to follow through on their commitments to combat global warming, according to Reuters.
When they come to the UN climate summit, Joe Biden and other leaders from wealthy nations will face a lot of criticism from those in developing nations. But the president of the United States has the power to shift the narrative by combining his current geopolitical, trade, and environmental policies.
With nations like India, Biden can advance “Just Energy Transition Partnerships” (JETPs), which seek to hasten the decarbonization of developing economies. This will protect the environment and advance Western interests.
