COP27: We're on a highway to climate hell, U.N. boss says
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[November 07, 2022]
By Valerie Volcovici and Simon Jessop
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, EGYPT (Reuters) - United
Nations Secretary General Antonio 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.
The speech set an urgent tone as governments sit down for two weeks of
talks on how to avert the worst of climate change, even as they are
distracted by Russia’s war in Ukraine, rampant consumer inflation and
energy shortages.
"Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish,” Guterres told delegates
gathered in the seaside resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.
He called for a pact between the world's richest and poorest countries
to accelerate the transition from fossil fuels and the delivery of
funding to ensure poorer countries can reduce emissions and cope with
the impacts of warming that have already occurred.
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“The two largest economies – the United States and China – have a
particular responsibility to join efforts to make this pact a reality,”
he said.
Guterres asked countries to agree to phase out the use of coal, one of
the most carbon-intense fuels, by 2040 globally, with members of the
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development hitting that mark
by 2030.
Despite decades of climate talks - the Egypt COP is the 27th Conference
of the Parties - progress has been insufficient to save the planet from
excessive warming as countries are too slow or reluctant to act, he
noted.
“Greenhouse gas emissions keep growing. Global temperatures keep rising.
And our planet is fast approaching tipping points that will make climate
chaos irreversible,” he said. “We are on a highway to climate hell with
our foot on the accelerator.”
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![](../images/110722PIX/news_e41.jpg)
Participants walk outside of the Sharm
El Sheikh International Convention Centre before the COP27 climate
summit opening in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt November 7, 2022.
REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
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UAE TO CARRY ON PUMPING OIL, GAS
Immediately after Guterres' speech, United Arab Emirates President
Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahya took the stage and said his
country, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting
Countries, would continue to produce fossil fuels for as long as
there is a need.
"The UAE is considered a responsible supplier of energy and it will
continue playing this role as long as the world is in need of oil
and gas," he said.
The UAE will host next year's U.N. conference, which will attempt to
finalise agreements made last year in Britain and at this year's
Egyptian talks.
Signatories to the 2015 Paris climate agreement pledged to achieve a
long-term goal of keeping global temperatures from rising by more
than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Scientists have set this as
the ceiling for avoiding catastrophic climate change.
Guterres said that goal will only stay alive if the world can
achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
The head of the International Monetary Fund told Reuters on the
sidelines of the conference that climate targets depend on achieving
a global carbon price of at least $75 a ton by the end of the
decade, and that the pace of change in the real economy was still
"way too slow".
The World Trade Organization, meanwhile, said in a reportpublished
on Monday that it should tackle trade barriers for low carbon
industries to address the role of global trade in driving climate
change.
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; editing by Barbara Lewis)
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