Sharm el-Sheikh: The UN chief on Monday told dozens of leaders to “cooperate or perish,” on avoiding further climate catastrophe, singling out the two biggest polluting countries, China and US.
He was not the only one preaching with tones of fire and brimstone, alternating with pathos and tragedy, trying to shake up the world’s sense of urgency at this year’s annual UN climate conference. “Choose life over death,” former US vice-president Al Gore urged. “It is not time for moral cowardice.” In calling for a massive overhaul of international development loans and a 10% tax on fossil fuel companies that made “$200 billion in profits in the last three months,” Barbados PM Mia Mottley said, “Our people on this Earth deserve better. ’’
“I don’t need to repeat the horror and the devastation wrecked upon this Earth over the course of the last twelve months since we met in Glasgow,” Mottley said. “Whether the apocalyptic floods in Pakistan or the heat waves from Europe to China or indeed in the last few days in my own region, the devastation caused in Belize by tropical storm Lisa.”
Ahead of this year’s conference, known as COP27, leaders and experts have been ringing alarm bells that time is fast running out to avert catastrophic rises in temperature.
Over 100 world leaders will speak over the next few days at the gathering in Egypt, most from developing countries demanding greater accountability from the richest, most polluting nations. Much of their focus will be on telling their stories of being devastated by climate disasters, culminating with a speech by PM Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan, where floods caused at least $40 billion in damage and displaced millions of people. “Is it not high time to put an end to all this suffering,” summit host, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, said. “Climate change will never stop without our intervention. . . Our time here is limited and we must use every second that we have.’’
