On Sunday, November 6th, 2022, envoys from around the world gathered in Sharm el-Sheikh, an Egyptian seaside resort, for talks on tackling climate change as the world also contends with several crises, including high inflation, the battle in Ukraine, an energy crunch and high inflation.
Last week, Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, warned that the earth was headed towards irreversible climate chaos. Therefore, countries must place the world back on track to reduce emissions and assist developing nations in coping with global warming’s impact.
Over 40,000 participants are already registered for this year’s talks. This reflects the sense of urgency as important weather events worldwide impact many individuals and cause damage worth billions of dollars.
The event is expected to last until November 18th, 2022. A hundred and ninety-eight nations will meet there to step up action to steadily minimize greenhouse gas emissions and realize the Paris Agreement’s goal to keep the earth’s warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The summit’s purpose is to build on and develop the climate goals that countries adopted in 2021 in Glasgow. As the presidency state, Egypt highlighted four main themes:
- Minimizing greenhouse gas emissions (mitigation).
- Adapting to climate change (adaptation).
- Reducing and addressing losses and damage linked to the effects of climate change.
- Financing climate action in developing nations.
Egypt stated that over 120 world leaders would attend. Most of them will speak at a high-level event on November 7th to 8th, 2022. U.S.A President Joe Biden is expected to participate in the event later in the week.
However, many top leaders, including India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China’s President Xi Jinping, were not planning to attend. This has cast doubt on whether the talks can result in major deals to reduce emissions since two of the largest polluters are absent.
Annalena Baerbock, Germany’s foreign minister, stated that the war in Ukraine, which has triggered economic and political upheaval worldwide, was overshadowing the talks. Baerbock said 2022 should not become a lost year for protecting the environment. For many states, discussions about climate change are about the survival of their culture and population. The climate crisis is an essential security issue for those states, not Russia’s war in Ukraine.
