By John Ikani
Humanity is on a “highway to climate hell”, the UN secretary general Antonio Guterres has warned, saying the fight for a liveable planet will be won or lost in this decade.
Guterres told countries gathered at the start of the COP27 summit in Egypt on Monday they face a stark choice: work together now to cut emissions or condemn future generations to climate catastrophe.
Nearly 100 heads of state and government are meeting in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, facing calls to deepen emissions cuts and financially back developing countries already devastated by the effects of rising temperatures.
“Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish,” said Guterres.
“It is either a climate solidarity pact or a collective suicide pact,” he noted, urging richer polluting nations to come to the aid of poorer countries least responsible for the emission of heat-trapping gases.
According to the UN Chief, the world had the tools it needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, in clean energy and low-carbon technology.
“A window of opportunity remains open, but only a narrow shaft of light remains,” he said. “The global climate fight will be won or lost in this crucial decade – on our watch. One thing is certain: those that give up are sure to lose.”
Nations worldwide are coping with increasingly intense natural disasters that have taken thousands of lives this year alone and cost tens of billions of dollars – from devastating floods in Nigeria and Pakistan to droughts in Kenya, Somalia and the United States and unprecedented heatwaves across three continents.
“We have seen one catastrophe after another,” said Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, whose country is hosting the annual gathering running until November 18. “As soon as we tackle one catastrophe another one arises – wave after wave of suffering and loss.
“Is it not high time to put an end to all this suffering?”
But a multitude of other crises, from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to soaring inflation and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, has raised concerns that climate change will drop on the priority list of governments.
Guterres, however, told leaders climate change could not be put on the “back burner.”
The Cop27 conference got off to a slow start, with negotiators spending more than 40 hours over the weekend wrangling over what would be on the agenda. In the end, it was agreed that the vexed issue of loss and damage – which refers to the worst impacts of the climate crisis, which are too severe for countries to adapt to – would be discussed.
From Wednesday, the world leaders will hand over to officials and ministers for the rest of the fortnight of talks. However, the summit promises to be a fraught and difficult one, with little chance of a breakthrough.
