The Guardian

Poorer countries denounce wealthier nations for delay and refusal over ‘loss and damage’ payments

Deep divisions threatened to derail the world’s chances of limiting the climate crisis last night as negotiators struggled to keep nations working together to tackle global heating.

In a day of high drama at the Cop27 UN climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, bitter conflict broke out between wealthy and poorer nations. Some of the world’s poorest countries denounced the rich for delaying action and refusing financial assistance to those suffering devastating extreme weather.

This month’s environmental summit opened as our planet wilts under the impact of climate crisis. Here we examine five key areas and assess what success – if any – was achieved in Egypt

A key Cop27 goal was to strengthen emission pledges made at last year’s climate summit in Glasgow. These are needed to ensure global heating is limited to 1.5C. No such commitments have been made in Egypt and most observers now conclude the world is destined to heat beyond this limit.

Xie Zhenhua said he’d had ‘very constructive discussions’ with John Kerry at Cop27 but there’s no change on finance issues

• Cop27 live – latest news updates

China and the US have renewed their partnership to tackle the climate crisis, and are working closely and productively on ways of bringing down greenhouse gas emissions, China’s head of delegation has said.

The surprise news from Xie Zhenhua, who briefed a small group of journalists at the Cop27 UN climate summit in Egypt on Saturday, comes as a rare moment of progress amid a conference mired in stalemate and bitter fighting between developed and developing countries.

Countries urged to make progress as ‘untransparent, unpredictable and chaotic’ talks in danger of collapse

• Cop27 live – latest news updates

Crucial climate talks are in disarray after a feverish night of “chaos”, hurried meetings and disinformation, with a stark warning that the vital goal of limiting global heating to 1.5C was in danger of being lost.

Sameh Shoukry, the Egyptian foreign minister who is president of the Cop27 UN climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, called on countries to make progress as the talks ran on well into Saturday afternoon, nearly a day after their scheduled close on Friday evening, with no end in sight.

Countries rowing back on the global goal of limiting temperature rises to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, agreed at last year’s Cop26 summit in Glasgow.

Text that abandoned the key commitment for countries to improve their national plans on emissions cuts each year, also agreed in Glasgow.

“Highly unusual” conduct of the negotiations by the Egyptian hosts, which meant countries were not jointly consulted on draft text that involved changes to key decisions.

“Disinformation” when a key document was doctored and disseminated so as to appear to come from several countries that were not involved in it.

An atmosphere of chaos and suspicion, in which some countries were accused of putting pressure on poorer and more vulnerable nations to act against their own best interests.

A blame game in which countries were preparing to blame any collapse on rivals.

Delegations phoning their capitals for fresh instructions on how to proceed.

Independent scientists raise concerns about apparent industry influence and distortions of the science in WHO guidelines

More than 110 scientists and regulators worldwide are raising a public alarm over what they label “weak” PFAS drinking water limits proposed by the World Health Organization, which they charge used shoddy science and “arbitrarily” dismissed hundreds of studies linking the “forever chemicals” to serious health problems.

Some further alleged the process of developing the guidelines was corrupted by industry-aligned consultants aiming to undercut strict new PFAS limits proposed in the US, and weaken standards in the developing world. The chemicals have been called “forever chemicals” due to their longevity in the environment.

After two weeks of negotiations, talks have been extended with countries unable to reach agreement on Friday

The main sticking point of Cop27 has been over the creation of a loss and damage fund – finance provided by rich nations to poorer ones to help them prepare for and recover from the worst impacts of climate breakdown.

Some, especially in the rightwing press, have framed this as “reparations”, a highly loaded term. It’s also misleading, as under article 8 of the Paris climate agreement it is explicitly made clear that loss and damage “does not involve or provide a basis for any liability or compensation.”

Kingdom’s Cop27 announcement of new storage hub part of pattern of delaying fossil fuel transition, experts say

Saudi Arabia is bolstering years of negotiation tactics designed to stymie vital climate negotiations with a focus on carbon capture technologies that experts say risk delaying a meaningful transition from fossil fuels.

The kingdom, which is the world’s largest oil producer, accounting for roughly 15% of global output, announced plans at Cop27 in Egypt for what it labelled the “circular carbon economy”, in partnership with the national oil company, Aramco, which recently reported $42.4bn in profit.

Australia’s climate change minister backs proposed loss and damage fund but says 1.5C target is crucial to limiting the bill

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As the Cop27 climate summit in Egypt extends into overtime, Chris Bowen has called for the “strongest possible action” to limit global heating to 1.5C and backed the establishment of a fund to help the poor deal with unavoidable damage from worsening extreme weather.

In an interview with the Guardian, the Australian climate change minister said the conference in Sharm el-Sheikh had faced a push from some countries to water down the Glasgow pact last year, and that he had fought alongside others to ensure that deal was “reaffirmed and built on”, not undone.

Lockdowns were their equivalent of me being forced go out every day for months

I appreciate that I am about to hang my dirty – or at least selfish and unreflective – washing out here for all to see but … I’ve only just started to appreciate how terrible the pandemic and lockdowns must have been for extroverts.

EU agrees to loss and damage fund to help poor countries and activists interrupting proceedings lose their passes

The biggest news of the day broke in the morning, with the announcement that the EU would now agree to a loss and damage fund to help poor countries amid climate disasters.

The climate summit will now run to Saturday, according to AFP. This is not really a surprise to anyone.

Youth activists staged a Friday climate strike to mark the last formal day of negotiations. Meanwhile during the talks, Nakeeyat Dramani, a 10-year-old Ghanaian climate activist. asked delegates to ‘have a heart’.

But elsewhere the activists who interrupted US president Joe Biden lost their summit passes, as did the Ukrainian protester who spoke out at a Russian press conference, it has emerged.

A surprisingly large number of gas deals were struck at the Egyptian summit, it has now emerged, with more than a dozen being set up while talks were ongoing.

And Desmog crunched the numbers and found that representatives from big agriculture have more than doubled at Cop27 this year.

Media briefings, protests and plenary sessions at the Cop27 UN climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt

Last-ditch plan for providing cash to countries suffering climate-related disaster brought overtime wrangling

• Cop27 live – latest news updates

Crucial climate talks have dragged on past their deadline with no end in sight, as governments wrangle over how to pay for the rebuilding of poor countries ravaged by climate breakdown.

There was turmoil in the negotiating halls of the Cop27 UN summit in Egypt. Delegates rushed from room to room as countries scrambled to decide their response to a last-ditch proposal from the European Union that would establish a new fund providing cash for countries suffering climate-related disaster, known as loss and damage.

Climate action group believes US is blocking progress on global heating by rejecting payments to poorer countries

The US has been named the “colossal fossil” of the Cop27 climate talks by campaigners who criticised the country for its intransigence in providing support to developing countries hit hardest by the climate crisis.

The “award”, unveiled at a ceremony featuring a person dressed as a dinosaur, is an annual event staged by Climate Action Network International to shame the countries deemed to be blocking climate progress.

It’s a miracle that any one of us is alive today. Those with the power to grant that miracle to future generations chose not to

The chances of any one person being born were calculated by the life coach Dr Ali Binazir. He multiplied the probability of your parents meeting, mating and conceiving by the chances of a particular sperm and egg fusing; of all your human and hominid ancestors reaching reproductive age; and of all them successfully reproducing. He arrived at a figure of one in 10 to the power of 2,640,000. In other words, a 10 followed by 2.6m zeros. It’s an unimaginable, miraculous number. Yet here we are.

The chances of being alive right now, as a member of one of the first generations to know the path it is on, and one of the last that can change it, must add several more zeros to this crazy number. The chances of being the president or prime minister of your nation at this critical moment … well you get the idea.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

Nakeeyat Dramani, a 10-year-old Ghanaian climate activist, appealed to delegates during a Cop27 session in Sharm el-Sheikh to 'have a heart'. Nakeeyat spoke 'on behalf of young people' who feared for their future, after seeing the impact of the climate crisis every day, in the form of air pollution, flooding and droughts. 

She joined Ghana's delegation to add her voice to the pressing consequences of the climate emergency in her country. At the end of her speech, Nakeeyat recited a poem, telling leaders to work harder to halt the climate crisis

• Cop27: EU agrees to finance fund for poorer countries – live
  

Campaigners who interrupted US president’s speech had passes revoked after they put ‘lives in danger’

• Cop27 live – latest news updates

Four US activists who had their Cop27 accreditation revoked after briefly interrupting the US president, Joe Biden, in Sharm el-Sheikh have described the UN as “shameful” and say it has silenced Indigenous voices.

Big Wind, Jacob Johns, Jamie Wefald, and Angela Zhong missed the second week of the climate conference after being suspended for standing up with a “People vs Fossil Fuels” banner during Biden’s speech last Friday. The Indigenous activists, Wind and Johns, gave a war cry to announce themselves and draw attention to the fossil fuels crisis before security officials confiscated the banner. The group then sat down and Biden continued.

It is not enough to professionally communicate the science of climate change. This is not a matter of rationality.

The role of science communication is to counter wilful ignorance. I don’t mean the deliberate placing of blinkers over the eyes or rose-coloured glasses on the nose. I mean the facts that are inconsistent with the pleasant stories we tell about ourselves, our species, our future. I mean the delusions we live by because they are enjoyable, help keep us sane and motivated, and those cultivated by vested interests to hoodwink us into putting their greed ahead of the public good.

Science develops inconvenient facts through the best form of knowledge production we have. It’s not flawless; it’s messy and human.

A mild November may be talked of as a ‘freak weather event’, but the climate crisis will make the abnormal normal

My fingers should be numb. My breath should rise in clouds. I want leaves to crunch and snap beneath my feet. I want to have to pull my coat tightly around me, to ram a hat low over my ears. I expect to be locking horns with the thermostat. But instead I find myself overheating. Is this the new November?

Following soaring temperatures across Britain throughout 2022 and a distinct lack of rain, we knew better than to expect our weather to resume its familiar winter course. An African plume of hot air whipping off the tropics, the Azores and Cape Verde has lifted London’s temperatures 8C above average. Porthmadog, north Wales, had a high of 21.2C on Remembrance Sunday. And we’re still pursuing a limit on global temperature rise of 1.5C.

Circus Science by the Sea takes place this weekend in Westport and Achill island, coastal areas facing climate challenges

Cop27 may have been dismissed as a circus in some quarters, but a group of scientists and performers is staging a real circus in Ireland to inspire people to help tackle the climate crisis.

The eclectic mix of engineers, conservation experts, clowns, jugglers and acrobats will perform this weekend in what is billed as Europe’s first circus science and environment festival.

Overfishing and a lack of regulation is pushing sharks to extinction – now a global body is hoping to better protect them

Countries at the world’s biggest wildlife summit have voted for the first time to regulate the trade that kills millions of sharks every year to feed the vast appetite for shark fin soup.

In what marine conservationists have hailed as a landmark decision, parties at the 186-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or Cites, voted to limit or regulate the commercial trade in 54 shark species of the requiem family, including tiger, bull and blue sharks which are the most targeted for the fin trade. It will require countries to ensure legality and sustainability prior to authorising exports of these species.