The U.N.’s COP27 climate summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh comes as nations worldwide are facing increasingly intense natural disasters that have taken thousands of lives this year alone and cost billions of dollars.
Global leaders faced growing pressure to deepen emissions cuts and financially back developing countries as they gathered for climate talks in Egypt on Monday.
At the opening ceremony on Sunday, COP27 officials urged governments to keep up efforts to combat climate change despite the economic crises linked to Russia’s war on Ukraine, an energy crunch, soaring inflation and the persistent COVID-19 pandemic.
“The fear is other priorities take precedence,” top United Nations climate change official Simon Stiell told a news conference.
The “fear is that we lose another day, another week, another month, another year – because we can’t,” he said.
The world must slash greenhouse emissions 45% by 2030 to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (34.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above late-19th-century levels.
But current trends would see carbon pollution increase 10% by the end of the decade and Earth’s surface heat up 2.8C, according to findings unveiled in recent days.
Only 29 of 194 countries have presented improved climate plans, as called for at the UN talks in Glasgow last year, Stiell noted.
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