Key events
Angst is building around the world over the progress of the loss and damage talks at Cop27. Global Justice Now has said delays by richer countries over the funding for the countries worst affected by climate breakdown are “reprehensible”.
Global Justice Now has a number of staff in Sharm el-Sheikh helping to lobby for a progressive outcome to the talks. The organisation has a commitment to “climate justice”, where the changes needed to avert climate disaster are not carried out at the expense of traditionally marginalised people. A spokesperson for Global Justice Now said:
Rich countries need to stop holding up talks and evading their historic responsibility for loss and damage. The countries most impacted by climate chaos are calling for a new UN fund to provide predictable, additional compensation for loss and damage – more dialogue on insurance schemes is not good enough.
They needn’t worry about how they would finance a new fund – there is a clear case for greatly increased taxation on fossil fuel companies, with the Big 5 corporations reporting $170bn in profit in the past 12 months. Over 600 of their lobbyists are here at Cop, including even on some countries’ negotiating delegations, so it’s not hard to imagine where the hold-up might be coming from.
With only a few days left, it is reprehensible that rich countries are using more dither and delay to try and hold back climate justice when lives are being lost and futures eroded.
Concern growing over blocks to progress on loss and damage negotiations
Mary Robinson, a former president of Ireland, has become the latest significant voice at Cop27 to raise concerns over the progress in negotiations on measures to address the loss and damage suffered by poorer countries as a result of climate change.
Robinson, who heads a group of prominent former world leaders known as the Elders, said China and Saudi Arabia were holding up talks on the issue, which has been hard fought for by countries of the global south that are on the frontlines of the climate crisis. According to quotes carried by the Reuters news agency, she said:
There does seem to be a bit of a block in loss and damage. There isn’t an agreement, it would appear, across the board, on a fund here and now.
I’m also very worried about the fact that the Santiago Network negotiations last night came up with a real problem because China and Saudi Arabia – and I’m naming names … are trying to block technical assistance for loss and damage going to the most vulnerable countries.
A spokesperson for the Saudi delegation to the talks declined to comment on Robinson’s remarks, Reuters said.
Lula calls for Amazon Cop in 2025
I can now give you some more details on Lula’s appearance at Sharm el-Sheikh, thanks to the news wires. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president-elect, has said he wants the 2025 Cop summit to be held in the Amazon region, as he promised to fight deforestation.
“I am here to say to all of you that Brazil is back in the world,” Lula was quoted as saying by Agence France-Presse. “Brazil was not born to be an isolated country.
“We will put up a very strong fight against illegal deforestation,” he said.
We saw earlier the rapturous welcome given to Lula at Cop27. He is on his first international trip after defeating the far-right incumbent president, Jair Bolsonaro, who presided over years of rampant Amazon deforestation. Under Bolsonaro’s pro-agribusiness administration average annual deforestation increased 75% compared with the previous decade.
Lula, who spoke at an event alongside Amazon region governors, announced the creation of a ministry of Indigenous people, vowing to “take very good care” of the region’s communities.
Patrick Greenfield
The Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance’s side event is just beginning. Patrick Greenfield is on the scene. He writes:
The launch of the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance (Boga) by Costa Rica and Denmark at Cop26 last year attracted huge media interest, with reporters packed into the press conference in Glasgow.
A year on, momentum behind the group, which aims to plot the path to the end of oil and gas, has been lost. The new Costa Rican president has distanced himself from the alliance’s aims and oil and gas exploration has grown following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
At Cop27 today, Boga has grown by another country – Fiji – while Washington state in the US has joined. Portugal has upgraded its membership to a full part of the alliance.
The Guardian understands Denmark has been speaking with other countries about joining the alliance. Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon said she was still considering joining at Cop27 last week.
Boga said Sweden and Quebec had both passed legislation banning oil and gas extraction on their territories, while California had taken strong action to protect communities from oil drilling. France is enacting legislation to enshrine a ban on overseas public finance for fossil fuel.
The Danish climate ambassador, Tomas Anker Christensen, said: “We have long been aware of the need to move away from fossil fuels to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change. The impact of the Russian invasion and global energy crisis has made that even clearer. It is especially important to assist developing countries in phasing out oil and gas production and today we take an important step.”
Long-promised UK deposit scheme will take another two years
Fiona Harvey
A long-mooted deposit return scheme in the UK will not be in place for a further two years, the UK environment secretary said on Wednesday, writes Fiona Harvey, Guardian environment correspondent.
“It will be another couple of years at least,” Thérèse Coffey told journalists at Cop27. “Scotland has not started theirs yet. We are getting on with our environmental targets and a business plan and Elms. We are coming up to the fifth anniversary of the 25 year environment plan.”
She said the UK government was still looking at investment zones and could not say whether they would go ahead without environmental protections.
She said she was “surprised” to find that the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs was not further ahead in setting out targets on air and water quality under the Environment Act 2021 but said these were being worked on.
Brazilian president wants to hold a Cop in the Amazon
Lula has called for a future Cop to take place in the Amazon. In a tweet, the Brazilian president says (according to Twitter’s own translation engine):
Let’s talk to the secretary-general of the UN for the next op to be done in Brazil, in the Amazon. I think it is important that the people who defend the Amazon know the region and the concrete reality.
Vamos falar com o secretário geral da ONU para que a próxima COP seja feita no Brasil, na Amazônia. Acho importante que as pessoas que defendem a Amazônia conheçam a região e a realidade concreta. #COP27
— Lula (@LulaOficial) November 16, 2022
The earliest opportunity that an Amazon Cop could take place would probably be 2025, with Dubai having already clinched Cop28.
Australia was hoping for Cop29, but Anthony Albanese’s government has pushed back its bid – to be made in conjunction with Pacific countries – to Cop31 in 2026 after recognising that it has little chance before.
Under the UNFCCC’s rotational hosting system between five country groupings, Cop29 is set to be in eastern Europe.
The Australian climate change minister, Chris Bowen, told an event on Tuesday night he expected Bulgaria to host Cop29 and Brazil to get Cop30. He said the Australia/Pacific bid for Cop31 was being well received.
Turkey also announced a bid for Cop31 as it updated its nationally determined contribution this week. The nationally determined contribution wasn’t particularly well received as it would lead to emissions still rising until 2040.
[With thanks to Adam Morton, Guardian Australia’s environment and climate editor, for the details on forthcoming Cops]
Patrick Greenfield
As we are waiting for Lula to speak, now is a good time to reflect on the two Brazils at Cop27, writes Patrick Greenfield.
There are two main Brazilian pavilions. One is the official government stand, where members of the outgoing Bolsonaro administration have been speaking, complete with disappointed men in business suits holding forth on industrial opportunities in the Amazon.
The other, the Brazil climate action hub, has been the base for politicians, scientists and civil society members close to Lula’s incoming administration. There, the events are full of life: indigenous leaders and environmentalists discussing the protection of the Amazon and the dire consequences of not doing so. “Brazil is back” is the message there.
This was the reaction as Lula arrived earlier.
Funding for the countries that are on the frontlines of the climate crisis was supposed to have been one of the big themes of this year’s summit.
But the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) and other developing countries have said they are gravely concerned by the lack of progress on funding for loss and damage.
The chair of AOSIS, Sir Molwyn Joseph, who is Antigua and Barbuda’s environment minister, has accused some developed countries of attempting to stall progress “and even worse, attempting to undermine small island states”. He said:
We have come too far to fail on loss and damage finance. Three-quarters of humanity is relying on a favourable outcome at COP27.
AOSIS and our fellow developing countries have toiled for the past thirty years to be heard on this issue. AOSIS has worked tirelessly this year to build consensus, devise a clear loss and damage response fund proposal, and ensure the commitment of the international community to come to Cop27 and negotiate on this issue in good faith.
Now, we are here, and some developed countries are furiously trying to stall progress and even worse, attempting to undermine small island developing states. So, not only are they causing the worst impacts of the climate crisis, they are playing games with us in this multilateral process.
If other countries continue to cast aside small islands to serve the interests of the fossil fuel industry, they cannot expect our people to swim in a stagnant pool. The tide has turned on loss and damage. Why do you continue to turn a deaf ear to the cries of our people? Why do you continue to call into question the very credibility of this process?
Brazilian president Lula has arrived at Cop27
Patrick Greenfield
Lula has arrived!
Patrick Greenfield is still there taking in the scene. He writes:
There’s a big roar from the crowd as Lula arrives and files into a meeting room next to the pavilion.
Chants of “Ole, ole, ole, ola, Lula, Lula!” restart. It is unclear whether he is going to address the crowd. I have not seen so much excitement at Cop27 so far.
I’ve been told that Lula is going to speak alongside Amazon governors at the event.
Not all is grim at Cop. Enthusiastic crowds are awaiting the appearance of the Brazillian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – or Lula, as he’s more popularly known, at a side event.
Our man Patrick Greenfield is among them and has posted a video of the moment on Twitter. He writes:
The incoming Brazilian president is not scheduled to formally address the climate summit for another six hours but Lula fever has arrived at Cop27.
I am stood in a large crowd waiting to hear Lula speak at a side event, who are already singing his name in anticipation. Senior diplomats, NGO heads and the world’s media are crowded round the event trying to catch a glimpse of the Brazilian president elect when he arrives. Lula has pledged to aim for zero deforestation in the Amazon.
After the environmental destruction presided over by his immediate predecessor, the rightwinger Jair Bolsonaro, there are big hopes Lula will act to protect Brazil’s environment, and the jewel in its crown, the Amazon rainforest.
But the man so many have pinned their hopes on has been embroiled in environmental controversy already this week, after he turned up at Egypt in a private jet.
Lula is far from the only Cop attendee to have arrived via private aviation. Data from FlightRadar showed 36 private jets landed at Sharm el-Sheikh between 4 and 6 November, and 64 flew into Cairo, 24 of which had come from Sharm el-Sheikh.
Tuesday brought the grim news of fears that some countries were backsliding on their climate commitments, with the first tentative drafts of decisions from the summit showing attempts to unpick agreements and water down promises.
Today our team will be closely watching developments in the negotiations, in particular staying alive to the possibility that extreme positions – such as attempts to scrap the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C – could have been advanced as negotiating gambits, rather than serious attempts to rewrite global goals.
This morning, a communique issued by the G20 group of industrialised nations, whose summit in Indonesia is taking place in parallel with Cop27, reiterated their commitment to 1.5C.
Noting the IPCC assessments that the impact of climate change will be much lower at a temperature increase of 1.5C compared with 2C, we resolve to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5C. This will require meaningful and effective actions and commitment by all countries …
The unequivocal G20 statement comes after a number of leaked drafts from Cop27 showed potential reversals in various areas. The central goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C has been targeted by India and China, who instead want to return to the Paris agreement goal of an upper limit of 2C.
Another draft showed proposals to halve commitments to finance climate adaptation. You can read more about the contentious drafts in our story from last night.
Cop watchers are still reeling from the dramatic and at times farcical scenes at last night’s Russian Federation Cop27 event.
It was, Damian Carrington and Nina Lakhani report, and notable for two things: the shouts of “war criminals” and the complete absence of any discussion of the nation’s oil and gas production. The latter is despite Russia being the second biggest oil and gas producer in the world, and carbon emissions from fossil fuels being the overwhelming cause of the climate crisis.
The event began with protesters repeatedly shouting “you are war criminals”, before they were swiftly removed from the room. “The event is about the climate agenda, not the political agenda,” the chair said. However, in the 75 minutes that followed, the role of fossil fuels was not mentioned by the six men who comprised the panel.
Sergei Anoprienko, the deputy environment minister, spoke first about the economic damage being caused by melting permafrost and about eliminating refuse landfill sites. Kirill Komarov, from the state-owned nuclear company Rosatom, spoke at length about Russia’s nuclear power capabilities. “The arguments against nuclear are very often coloured politically and are emotional,” he said, adding that a floating nuclear power plant in a remote peninsula had allowed “children to see for the first time that snow can be white”.
A scientific adviser to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, talked about monitoring greenhouse gases and a special breed of poplar tree that could absorb more carbon as it grew.
Also on the panel was Vyacheslav Fetisov, the UN Environment Programme’s goodwill ambassador for Russia, a deputy in the Russian Duma and a former ice hockey star, who spoke about the need to preserve access to water. He also railed against the sanctions imposed on Russia after it invaded Ukraine: “We are ready to cooperate but we are hit with sanctions, which includes green and energy-saving technology. I don’t understand.”
As the event turned to questions, the BBC’s climate editor Justin Rowlatt approached the stage with a camera operator, asking: “Are you going to pay for the environmental damage you have caused in Ukraine?” as a result of the invasion, but was quickly removed from the room.
The final question from the audience was what Russia thought about India’s proposal to include the need to “phase down all fossil fuels” in Cop27’s final decision text, rather than just “phase down coal” as was in the Glasgow pact agreed at Cop26. This produced the gnomic response: “Coal is still alive, so let us wait.”
The panellists had described Russia as a “climate responsible” nation. But the event provided little evidence of that.
Asked later why she had disrupted the event, the Ukrainian activist Svitlana Romanko, from Razom We Stand, said: “I am glad that I named evil by name and I was able to tell them what all Ukrainians would like to tell them if they were here. You are a terrorist state, you are genociding, torturing and killing us daily for nine months, your oil and gas are killing us. You are war criminals, you must not be here but in international court.”
Patrick Greenfield
Good morning from Sharm el-Sheikh where it is biodiversity day at Cop27. Here is what to expect:
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Incoming Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is in town and he will address the summit at around 5pm local time (3pm GMT). The world will be especially keen to hear more about his plan to achieve zero deforestation in the Amazon. Yesterday, Lula met the US climate envoy John Kerry and China’s chief climate negotiator Xie Zhenhua, while those close to the president-elect have been reassuring people on the ground in Egypt that halting rampant deforestation in the Amazon will be a priority for his administration.
Earlier this week, Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Indonesia – the big three rainforest nations – announced they were forming an alliance to cooperate on their protection at the G20 in Bali. Confusingly, the agreement was signed on behalf of Brazil’s outgoing far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, although Lula’s team have also been in contact with the DRC and Indonesia. Listen out for more detail from Lula about how the three countries will cooperate.
Nature is taking centre stage in Egypt today just three weeks before the beginning of the biodiversity Cop15 in Montreal, Canada. Overnight, the architects of the Paris agreement have urged world leaders to reach an ambitious sister deal for nature while warning 1.5C is impossible without protecting ecosystems. Expect more on next month’s nature summit throughout the day.
Good morning, and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Cop27 climate conference being held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
Wednesday’s focus will be on biodiversity, and overnight four of the principal architects of the Paris Agreement on climate urged fellow leaders to come up with a similar deal for nature at the Cop15 conference which will take place in Canada in December.
“Leaders must secure a global agreement for biodiversity which is as ambitious, science-based and comprehensive as the Paris agreement is for climate change. Like the Paris agreement, it must encourage countries to pledge and also ratchet up their action commensurate with the size of the challenge,” said the statement by Laurence Tubiana, Christiana Figueres, Laurent Fabius and Manuel Pulgar-Vidal.
You can read my colleague Patrick Greenfield’s report here:
Elsewhere, today may be the day we see a first draft of the “cover text” for the conference, which may give an idea of how much progress – or otherwise – has been made at the talks.
You can also catch up on yesterday’s events here.
I’m Damien Gayle, and you can send me news tips, questions or anything else at damien.gayle@theguardian.com, or on Twitter at @damiengayle.
