COP27 climate change summit kicks off in Egypt
The 27th session of the annual United Nations climate change conference has kicked off in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egpyt, with calls for world leaders to take immediate action to save the world from the impacts of climate change.
As Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry took over the Conference of Parties (COP) Presidency, the summit agreed to discuss financing to help vulnerable nations, such as Kenya, cope with the impacts of the losses and damage as a result of climate change.
“The inclusion of this agenda reflects a sense of solidarity and empathy for the suffering of the victims of climate-induced disasters. And to this end, we all owe a debt of gratitude to activists and civil society organisations who have persistently demanded the space to discuss funding for loss and damage and thus provided the impetus needed to bring this matter forward,” he said at the opening plenary.
Loss and damage is one of Africa’s priority areas, as the continent continues to suffer serious impacts of climate change, The entire Horn of Africa is currently stuck in the worst drought in 40 years, which has already killed more than 200 elephants and two million heads of livestock in Kenya alone.
In Nigeria, more than 500 people have been killed in flooding just this year, homes lost and infrastructure destroyed. Such losses and damages are what Africa is seeking compensation for.
“I particularly welcome the agreement of the parties a new agenda item on funding arrangements to respond to loss and damage. This creates for the first time an institutionally stable space on the formal agenda of the COP and the Paris agreement the pressing issue of funding arrangements needed to deal with existing gaps and responding to loss and damage,” Shoukry added.
And as the summit now faces a long two weeks of tough negotiations, the United Nation’s World Meteorological Organisation has painted a grim picture of what a warming world will look like, if this COP fails to take the action needed to mitigate climate change. The report, titled State of Global Climate, indicates that if 2022 continues on the projections it’s on, then each of the last eight years will be the hottest years ever recorded. Around the world, heat waves, wildfires, sea level rise and droughts have intensified, pushing the world towards a nearly 30C temperature rise by the end of the century. The report goes further to document the impacts of climate change around the globe, including the devastating drought in the Horn of Africa.
“As cop 27 gets underway, our planet is sending a distress signal,” the UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said. “This report is a chronical of climate chaos.”
So far, the WMO reports that global temperatures have increased by 1.10C since the late 19th century and that the world has no choice but to ensure that the 1.50C threshold is not reached, because countries may not be able to survive that much temperature rise. 2022 is already on track to go down in history as one of the hottest years the world has ever seen. The 5th hottest year, to be exact.
“The greater the warming, the worse the impacts,” WMO’s secretary-general Petteri Taalas said at the launch of the report.
There were also reports of marine heat waves that have disturbed marine ecosystems and contributed to erratic weather witnessed around the world.
“All over the world, records are being shattered as different parts of the climate system begin to break down,” the report says. “Greenhouse gases accounting for more than 95% of rising temperatures are at record levels.”
This report is expected to inform the discussions over the next two weeks as poor countries seek to push the rich countries to take responsibility for causing climate change and compensate them for the losses they suffer as a result. There are 175 agenda items on the table, which will be negotiated on by the 194 countries attending COP 27. Kenya has grouped the 175 agenda items into 11 priority areas, among them the recognition of Africa’s special needs and circumstances, financing for loss and damage and emphasis on adaptation to enable the country to build the required resilience to survive a warming world.
The United Nations Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC) has called on the delegates to build on the momentum set my COP 26 last year, and deliver an agreement that listens to the science.
“We made this agreement together only last year – I am not in the habit in rescinding on my word I firmly expect all parties to stick to their act the same way. Stick to your commitments, build on them here in Egypt. I will not be a custodian of backsliding.” Simon Stiell, theUNFCCC Executive Secretary said. ” And then there are those who still refuse to act unless others do, they will not be allowed to slow down the collective process, let’s not let positioning block progress. All of us have to do everything we are capable of doing.”
The inclusion of the loss and damage issue on the COP 27 agenda now sets the stage for fierce negotiations, as Africa expresses displeasure with how the matter will be discussed, even before negotiations begin.
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