SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AFP) -- The UN’s chief warned that nations must cooperate or face “collective suicide” in the fight against climate change, at a summit where developing countries reeling from global warming demanded more action from rich polluters.
Nearly 100 heads of state and government are meeting for two days in Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, facing calls to deepen emissions cuts and financially back developing countries already devastated by the effects of rising temperatures.
“Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish,” António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations, told the UN COP27 summit.
“It is either a Climate Solidarity Pact or a Collective Suicide Pact,” he added.
Guterres urged the world to ramp up the transition to renewable energy, and for richer polluting nations to come to the aid of poorer countries least responsible for heat-trapping emissions.
He said the target should be to provide renewable and affordable energy for all, calling on the United States and China in particular to lead the way.
U.S.-Sino tensions, however, have prompted Beijing to freeze climate cooperation with Washington.
President Xi Jinping is absent from the summit, while President Joe Biden will attend it later this week after U.S. midterm elections.
Nations worldwide are coping with increasingly intense natural disasters that have taken thousands of lives this year and cost billions of dollars.
They range from devastating floods in Nigeria and Pakistan to droughts in the United States and several African nations, as well as unprecedented heatwaves across three continents.
“We have seen one catastrophe after another,” said Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. “Is it not high time to put an end to all this suffering?”
Money has emerged as a major issue at COP27, with wealthy countries scolded for failing to fulfill their pledge to provide $100 billion per year to help developing countries green their economies.
This is a “major cause for persisting distrust, and neither is there any sound reason for the continuing pollution”, said Kenyan President William Ruto, who announced an African climate summit for next year.
A salvo of crises — from the Ukraine war to soaring inflation and the lingering effects of the Covid pandemic — have raised concerns that climate change has dropped down the priority list of governments.
Guterres called for a “historic” deal between rich emitters and emerging economies, with countries doubling down on emissions reductions to hold the rise in temperatures to the more ambitions