Are world leaders ready to take action at COP27?
World leaders plan to take action against climate change as they gather in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, for COP27. So far only 25 out of 200 countries invited to attend the summit have submitted their plans to address climate change.
Antonio Guterres, United Nations chief, has urged the attendees to cooperate with global efforts saying: “It is either a climate solidarity pact or a collective suicide pact.”
After a major u-turn Rishi Sunak is in attendance of the 27th annual climate summit, and is expected urge world leaders to move “further and faster” in the battle against climate change.
COP27 outlines three main areas of focus for this year’s conference: reducing emissions, helping countries to deal with climate change and providing technical and financial support for the countries in need.
One of the items on the agenda is the discussion of “funding arrangements responding to loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change, including a focus on addressing loss and damage.”
The UK has proposed a financial plan that would help countries most effected by climate change deal with the issue it causes. Foreign secretary, James Cleverly, will announce a range of investments worth over £100 million.
Pakistan and Jordan are among the countries suffering from extreme weather as a result of climate change. King Abdullah of Jordan highlighted the gravity of the situation saying: “Rising temperatures and water scarcity has put heavy pressure on our limited resources.”
Many of the world’s top polluters do not plan to attend the COP27 climate conference this year. China, the world’s top climate polluter, India, which is the second, Russia being the fifth and Australia, the 14th have all refused to attend the conference this year.
According to Sky News Rishi Sunak re-evaluated his decision after learning former PM Boris Johnson would be in attendance saying: “Oh, it’s great that the former prime minister is here.”
He continued: “I think it says something great about the UK that not only have we got the current prime minister here, we’ve got a former prime minister here. It just demonstrates our leadership on this issue globally.”