We’re going to wrap up the blog for today.
What happened at Cop27: day seven
‘This could be the Cop where we lose 1.5C,’ warns Alok Sharma, as anxiety grows over a push from some countries to weaken the text.
Brazil would love to host Cop in 2025, according to Marina Silva, the country’s former environment minister and a close ally of its incoming president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is widely expected to be given a ministerial post when he forms his new government.
Indigenous women from the Amazon held a press conference calling out the violence committed against their land and their bodies.
UN climate boss Simon Stiell urged countries to use their remaining time in Egypt to “build the bridge needed” to make progress on 1.5C, adaptation, finance, and loss and damage. Cop president Shoukry seemed confident that the talks would wrap up on time by Friday, but those on the ground think that is highly unlikely and negotiations are going badly.
Developing countries criticised the G7’s loss and damage strategy. My colleague Nina Lakhani reported that the G7 countries – historically the most responsible for the global greenhouse gases causing extreme weather events and slow-onset climate disasters and who have for years delayed and denied the need for a loss and damage fund – are pushing the Global Shield insurance scheme as an alternative.
Three tropical rainforest nations – Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo – have signed a strategic alliance to coordinate at their conservation summit at G20.
The family of the Egyptian-British hunger striker Alaa Abd el-Fattah have received proof of life – a hand-written letter from prison.
My colleague Oliver Holmes will be blogging bright and early tomorrow. The theme for the day will be energy, and we’ll be following all the developments, as always. Thanks for joining us.
Updated
'This could be the Cop where we lose 1.5C' warns Alok Sharma
Alok Sharma, the former UK cabinet minister who presided over the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow last year, made a spirited defence of the Glasgow climate pact at the opening of the high-level ministerial roundtable discussions on pre-2030 ambition at Cop27, and warned delegates of the binary choice facing them: “We’ll either leave Egypt having kept 1.5C alive or this will be the Cop where we lose 1.5C.”
He said sticking to the global goal of limiting temperatures to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels had to be a “red line” for all countries at Cop27, and insisted there could be no “backsliding” from it.
He reminded the gathered ministers of what was achieved last year, in very different geopolitical circumstances from the current conference of the parties.
“At Cop26 we did resolve collectively to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5C,” he said. “I have always said what we agreed in Glasgow and Paris has to be the baseline of our ambition. We’ve got to stick to that commitment. We cannot allow any backsliding.”
Photograph: Tim Hammond/No10 Downing Street
But he warned: “We are already at 1.1C global warming, and I know I don’t have to remind all of you the impact of that around the world. Even at 1.5C we are still going to have devastating outcomes for many millions. As our friend from Bangladesh reminded us, 1.5 needs to be a red line. And this cannot be the Cop where we lose 1.5C.”
He added: “We’ve got to fight for this and every fraction of a degree absolutely makes a difference. It’s the difference … between a tolerable existence and an impossible future.”
He said countries needed to set out clearly how they would cut greenhouse gas emissions in line with the 1.5C target. “We’ve got a G20 leaders’ meeting going on right now,” he said, referring to the meeting of G20 world leaders in Bali now under way. “They need to reaffirm their commitment to Paris and to Glasgow.”
He called on countries that had not yet submitted revised national plans on emissions – called nationally determined contributions (NDCs) – to draw them up urgently. He also called for a faster phasing out of coal and of fossil fuel subsidies. And he called for technical issues in the Cop work programme to be resolved.
He added that keeping 1.5C alive was fundamental to the other key issues of Cop27, including climate finance and the struggles over loss and damage. “The reality is without progress on [cutting emissions] we are going to beyond our ability to adapt and of course I want to see progress made on loss and damage here but unless we stick to [1.5C] all of that is going to be a lot more difficult.”
He concluded starkly: “We’ll either leave Egypt having kept 1.5C alive or this will be the Cop where we lose 1.5C. You need to work out how you want future generations to look upon this Cop and each of us individually as countries. It’s really up to us to decide, I hope we will decide to keep 1.5C alive.”
The warning comes amid anxiety that some countries may be trying to get the wording around 1.5C weakened. Earlier today, Dr Simon Evans of Carbon Brief tweeted that “some parties are pushing for a return to Paris language, which centres on ‘well-below 2C.’”
Updated
Denmark and Sweden head the field, China has slumped and Australia has risen slightly but remains near the bottom in a new ranking list of climate performance by civil society groups released at Cop27.
The annual climate change performance index, now in its 18th year, assesses 59 countries and the EU on four measures: emissions, renewable energy, energy use and climate policy.
Compiled by Germanwatch, the NewClimate Institute and Can International, it found no country was yet on a 1.5C pathway.
The top three spots on the table were left blank, reflecting that no one was performing at the level expected to justify such a high ranking. The leader, Denmark, was ranked fourth, followed by Sweden, Chile, Morocco and India. The UK was 11th.
The world’s biggest polluter, China, fell dramatically compared with last year’s rankings, dropping from 38 to 51. The authors found while China was backing renewable energy at substantial levels, it was also continuing to invest in new coal plants and failing to curb rising emissions.
It ranked one spot higher than the US, which climbed three spots to 52 following the passage of an extraordinary $369bn in climate measures included in the Inflation Reduction Act, but was held back by its high per capita emissions and renewable energy share.
The other notable mover was Australia. It jumped four spots from 59 to 55 following the introduction of the Albanese Labor government, which has legislated a new national emissions reduction target for 2030 (a 43% cut compared with 2005 levels) and started work on policies to cut industrial emissions and encourage electric vehicle uptake. The authors said these changes were welcome, but modest, and the target still too weak.
The bottom 10 on the list was dominated by fossil fuel producers: Poland, Australia, Malaysia, Chinese Taipei, Canada, Russia, Korea, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia and, in last place, Iran.
Jan Burck of Germanwatch urged countries to use the external shock of the energy crisis to accelerate the expansion of renewables and energy efficiency, and end fossil fuel dependence.
“It’s a moment of truth: how serious are countries about their climate commitments? Today, it becomes evident that the fossil fuel system is still very strong and present.”
Updated
Brazil would like to host Cop in 2025
Brazil would welcome the opportunity to host the UN climate summit in 2025 if the international community can forgive the havoc caused by the previous Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, who backtracked on a commitment to hold Cop25 in 2019, according to Marina Silva, the former environment minister and close ally of incoming president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
“It’s terrible what Bolsonaro did, we lost an opportunity in 2019 and we have a dream to honour that commitment,” Silva told the Guardian.
Deforestation of the Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest, dropped during Silva’s tenure as Lula’s environment minister, but has risen over the past four years under Bolsonaro, who has encouraged illegal loggers, miners and farmers while dismantling law enforcement and other government agencies tasked with protecting the region and its people. Violence against Indigenous people and other environmental defenders also escalated, including the murder of Guardian journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira in June.
“It hurts me that environmental defenders like Dom and Bruno had to sacrifice their lives, but we must honour their lives, not just their deaths. We must take the criminals out of this land and ensure the state is present to enforce the law, as well as create alternative sustainable economies that leave the forest intact. No more people should die for this cause, we have to end this cycle of murders,” said Silva.
A major challenge will be ensuring a just transition away from deforestation for all the people of the Amazon – including the illegal loggers, miners and small-scale farmers. “We can facilitate new sustainable economic activities that leave the forest intact, like ecotourism and sustainable fishing, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, as well as creating new value chains for the Amazon’s foods and products.”
Silva, who is expected to get a ministerial post in Lula’s government, repeated the president-elect’s commitment to zero deforestation, but emphasised that this would not be enough to mitigate against the worst effects of global greenhouse gas emissions.
“Brazil has always contributed more to climate mitigation than any country, and we want to do more through modern solutions integrated with traditional Indigenous knowledge. But the world needs to do its part to reduce CO2 emissions, because if not, even if we stop deforestation, the Amazon will disappear if the temperature rises.”
Bolsonaro did not attend Cop27, but Lula will give a highly anticipated speech on Wednesday.
Updated
Reaction is still coming in to the announcement, earlier today, that the US and China will restart talks on the climate crisis.
The talks had been on hold as part of the general seizing up of relationships between the countries. But the US president, Joe Biden, met with Xi Jinping, the president of China, for several hours today before the Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, and agreed to get back around the table.
Ani Dasgupta, president and CEO of the World Resources Institute, said: “The global community is breathing a sigh of relief that President Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are restarting joint efforts to tackle climate change. There is simply no time left for geopolitical fault lines to tear the US and China away from the climate negotiation table.
“Of course, coming back to the table is just a precursor for the leadership on climate change that is required from these two super economies. We need exponential progress that can only happen if the world’s top two emitters commit to work together to combat climate change and support decarbonization efforts worldwide.
“We urge the US and China to use the G20 Summit and the UN climate summit in Egypt as platforms to reconfirm their steadfast support for the Glasgow climate pact, including limiting global warming to 1.5C, jointly committing to bolder action to rein in methane emissions, and working to address increasingly severe impacts from climate change.”
Updated
In the UK, Just Stop Oil activists have just tweeted out a film of themselves throwing orange paint at a building that they identify as the Silver Fin building in Aberdeen, where Barclays and Shell have offices.
🚨 BREAKING: BARCLAYS BANK AND SHELL HQ DOUSED IN PAINT
— Just Stop Oil (@JustStop_Oil) November 14, 2022
Just Stop Oil supporters covered the Silver Fin building offices of @Barclays and @Shell_UKLtd in Aberdeen in orange paint, in solidarity with @XRebellionUK.#COP27 #A22Network #BetterWithoutBarclays #ClimateChange #M25 pic.twitter.com/Ju9yXiRiaD
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Scientist and author Dr Michael E Mann, one of the earliest to sound the alarm on the climate crisis, published the results of two surveys today with Shawn Patterson Jr looking at “public disapproval of disruptive climate change protests”. Run by the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC), it set out to investigate the impact these actions have on public perceptions of climate breakdown.
The surveys, which were conducted with just over 2,000 respondents, found that 46% of them reported that these tactics decreased their support for efforts to address climate breakdown; 40% of respondents said the tactics had no effect; and 13% said the tactics increased their support.
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Indigenous women call out violence against their land and their bodies
Indigenous women from the Amazon have just held a press conference calling out the violence committed against their land and their bodies, as well as the failure of the Cop summit to take their ideas and solutions seriously.
“In both cases we are talking about consent and violations of our right to decide,” said Helena Gualinga (Kichwa), an Indigenous youth climate leader from Sarayaku, Ecuador. “We are the main custodians of the untouched forests. If women are protected, we will also protect the territories and ecosystems essential to climate mitigation.”
Also from Ecuador, Patricia Gualinga (Kichwa), from the Amazon Women in Defense of the Jungle, warned investors in and extractive industries to stay away. “It will be bad for business. If you come in, we will stop you because we are in a struggle for our lives ... but we come here with ideas and proposals that can contribute to global solutions, you just have to listen and respect the knowledge and include us in the decision making, otherwise this summit will fail.”
Today is water and gender day at Cop27, and women across the world are on the frontline protecting water (and land) from exploitation by extractive industries like monocropping, mines and oil, which guzzle scarce supplies and contaminate groundwater sources. But thinking about water and land protection separately – as government policies and NGO initiatives often do – can create imbalances in complex interdependent ecosystems, said Sônia Bone Guajajara, Indigenous leader from Brazil who was recently elected to the National Congress. “We are the ones protecting biodiversity, so we need Indigenous women in decision making spaces yet here at Cop our participation is still undermined.”
The press conference ended with a rallying cry: “Not one more drop of Indigenous blood. The Amazon is not for sale.”
Updated
Megan Darby, the editor of Climate Home, is also getting a little edgy.
She says she has now covered seven Cops and is getting better, she hopes, at filtering out the noise and … “there’s precious little signal out there today”.
this is my 7th Cop and I can't say I've perfected the formula for reporting them but I am getting better at tuning out the noise, and... there's precious little signal out there today #COP27
— Megan Darby (@climatemegan) November 14, 2022
She points out that “normally technical negotiators hand over to ministers at the weekend to thrash out political issues in the second week. The #Cop27 presidency doesn’t plan to bring ministers into negotiations until Wednesday”.
Expectations for this Cop were low, to be fair. Darby wonders if, as a result, “we could end up with a short cover text that just recalls the Glasgow pact etc”.
that doesn't leave much time to debate the big issues around loss and damage, finance, 1.5C, fossil fuels... we could end up with a short cover text that just "recalls the Glasgow Pact" etc
— Megan Darby (@climatemegan) November 14, 2022
Updated
This week, negotiators are trying to hammer out the draft text to be agreed by the end of the week.
The Paris Agreement in 2015 secured agreement that countries would hold the global temperature average to “well below 2C above preindustrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5C above preindustrial levels”.
Cop26 in Glasgow last year put a much stronger emphasis on 1.5C. But Dr Simon Evans of Carbon Brief has just flagged that a number of large economies are now pushing for “a return to Paris language, which centres on ‘well below 2C’.”
#COP27 issue watch
— Simon Evans (@DrSimEvans) November 14, 2022
What's happening on the 1.5C target?
COP26 (pic) repeated wording from Paris Agreement (par20) but put the emphasis on 1.5C (par21)…
…now some Parties are pushing for a return to Paris language, which centres on "well-below 2C" pic.twitter.com/8jTsCQrYWr
This kind of push and pull is the stuff that negotiations are made of. But still, it would be deflating, given the state of the climate emergency, to see anything that looked like going backwards.
Updated
Good afternoon, I’m taking over from my colleague Helena Horton for the rest of the day, bringing you developments in Sharm el-Sheikh as they come.
In the meantime, may I recommend this report by Arthur Neslen, who has taken a deep dive into the world of the Energy Charter Treaty.
Germany became the latest country, at the end of last week, to announce its intention to exit the ECT, the arbitration system which allows energy companies to sue governments. Germany is following in the footsteps of France, Spain and the Netherlands, although the UK is still holding out.
This puts the EU in an awkward position as it discusses how to reform the treaty. Neslen carried out analysis with Transnational Institute and Powershift, and found issues with perceived conflicts of interest and concerns over self-regulation.
Updated
What happened so far today at Cop
So I am signing off the blog shortly and handing over to my colleague Bibi van der Zee, who will keep you thoroughly entertained and informed throughout the afternoon.
Here is what has happened so far today.
As the second week kicked off, the UN climate boss Simon Stiell urged countries to use their remaining time in Egypt to “build the bridge needed” to make progress on 1.5C, adaptation, finance, and loss and damage. The Cop president, Sameh Shoukry, seemed confident that the talks would wrap up on time by Friday, but those on the ground think that is highly unlikely and negotiations are going very badly.
Back in the UK,a former adviser to No 10, who worked under Boris Johnson and left in May this year, has started a campaign to get green growth on the agenda. Sam Richards, who today launches his new campaign, Britain Remade, says “special interests” have blocked green growth initiatives such as onshore wind and he plans to change that.
We launched our best dressed competition as so many people are wearing beautiful clothes from their home countries at Cop. Keep sending them in to Bibi!
Developing countries criticised the G7’s loss and damage strategy. My colleague Nina Lakhani reported that the G7 countries – historically the most responsible for the global greenhouse gases causing extreme weather events and slow-onset climate disasters and who have for years delayed and denied the need for a loss and damage fund – are pushing the Global Shield insurance scheme as an alternative. This has not gone down well with climate justice advocates or developing countries, some of which would be excluded for being too developed.
My colleague Patrick Greenfield brought in a fantastic scoop that the big three tropical rainforest nations – Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo – have signed a strategic alliance to coordinate at their conservation summit at G20.
The family of Egyptian British hunger striker Alaa Abd el-Fattah say they have received proof of life: a handwritten letter from prison.
We’ve had a guest post from the international climate and nature minister Lord Goldsmith, and I don’t want to promise something we can’t deliver, but we should be getting one from a mystery A-lister later …
As ever, there is much more to come both today and for the remainder of the conference so stay tuned and thank you for reading the Guardian. We will be blogging every day so check the site – and I’ll be back with you later this week.
Updated
UK trade minister makes speech at institute which has played down global heating
My eagle-eyed colleague Peter Walker has pointed out that Kemi Badenoch has chosen Cop27 week as an opportunity to speak at the Cato Institute, a thinktank which has been accused of disputing the science around climate change.
At her first speech as international trade minister, she chose to address this group in Washington as she promotes US-UK trade.
It's interesting that, with Cop27 going on, international trade secretary Kemi Badenoch has chosen to make her main speech on a US trip to the Cato Institute, which spent many years sowing doubt about climate change (even if they have arguably less bad in the last few years)
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) November 14, 2022
Greenpeace has a good summary of the institute’s contributions to climate dialogue.
It’s full of interesting nuggets such as: “The organisation’s 2009 ‘Handbook for Policymakers’ on global warming begins with the suggestions that Congress should ‘pass no legislation restricting emissions of carbon dioxide’ and ‘inform the public about how little climate change would be prevented by proposed legislation’.’”
On its website, the institute says: “Global warming is indeed real, and human activity has been a contributor since 1975. But global warming is also a very complicated and difficult issue that can provoke very unwise policy in response to political pressure.”
Regular Guardian readers may remember this isn’t her first controversy when it comes to net zero – when she stood for Conservative leader and prime minister she did a spectacular double U-turn on net zero after calling it “unilateral economic disarmament”.
Updated
Revealed: imprisoned hunger striker's letter to family
The family of the Egyptian British hunger striker Alaa Abd el-Fattah have received proof that he is still alive, a letter from prison written on Saturday and given to his mother today.
Abd el-Fattah has been on a prolonged hunger strike since April which he escalated to cease drinking water on the day Cop27 began. He told his mother, the activist Laila Soueif, that he began drinking water again on Saturday, six days into his water strike, in a very carefully worded letter.
Here’s a translation:
4pm Saturday 12/11/2022
How are you, Mama?
I’m sure you’re really worried about me. This will be a short letter and the long letter will be the day of the provisions.
From today I’m drinking water again so you can stop worrying until you see me yourself. Vital signs today are OK. I’m measuring regularly and receiving medical attention.
When you come with the provisions bring the MP3 player with you and god willing it will be allowed in.
I will need vitamins because what I have is almost finished, and effervescent salts.
I miss you all and love you all very much
Alaa
The Egyptian public prosecutor and authorities have said that Abd el-Fattah received a “medical intervention”, last week, amid cryptic statements from President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi to the French president, Emmanuel Macron, that he was “committed” to preserving the democracy activist’s health.
Abd el-Fattah’s family have raised concerns that efforts to keep him alive but shielded from public view could change after Cop27 ends, amid rising pressure on the British government to get access to a detained British national.
Abd el-Fattah’s lawyer, Khaled Ali, is currently at Wadi Al Natrun prison where he is being held for a second consecutive day in a bid to get access to his client.
Updated
Thanks to Guardian reader Nyshie Perkinson who has sent in a submission for best dressed.
This is Djyba Gomes Jao, from Guinea Bissau
And our Nina Lakhani, who is on a fashion photography spree today, has sent in another submission. This is the magnificently dressed Ninawa Inu Pereria Nunes Huni Kui from the Indigenous Educational Network of Turtle Island.
Scoop: Three big rainforest nations form alliance
The big three tropical rainforest nations – Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo – have signed a strategic alliance to coordinate at their conservation at G20, the Guardian can reveal.
The agreement, signed by the administration of outgoing president Jair Bolsonaro, who has overseen enormous deforestation of the Amazon, says the three countries will coordinate on UN climate and biodiversity talks related to tropical forests, with a focus on finance, sustainable management and restoration.
Brazil, Indonesia and DRC are home to 52% of the world’s remaining primary tropical forests, which are crucial to avoiding climate catastrophe. The new alliance says that a results-based payments mechanism to reduce deforestation and keep them standing is a priority through UN climate talks.
The incoming president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said he would seek to forge a similar alliance in his campaign, with parallel discussions between his team and counterparts in Indonesia and the DRC understood to be happening.
Lula will attend Cop27 on Wednesday where he is expected to discuss efforts to save the Amazon and other forests around the world.
Updated
An eye-catching protest from Extinction Rebellion in Cape Town, South Africa, for Water Day at Cop. They are pointing out that business as usual from the fossil fuel companies equals death.
Photograph: Esa Alexander/Reuters
In good news for bloggers everywhere, the Cop presidency is rather optimistically claiming that negotiations will be wrapped up on time.
Reuters reports that Cop president, Sameh Shoukry, says the first parts of texts will be “emerging” tonight, with “very few issues” left by Wednesday evening, with publication of “near final” text Thursday, and a deal done by Friday.
Our reporters on the ground have said this is surprising as negotiations do not appear to be going very well at all.
Experts including Greenpeace’s chief scientist Doug Parr and Business Green’s James Murray responded with some mirth to Shoukry’s timeline.
It's 'oh my sweet summer child' day at COP, I see.
— James Murray (@James_BG) November 14, 2022
hahahahaha doesn't every COP presidency think they'll get it done on time?
— Doug Parr (@doug_parr) November 14, 2022
Updated
Developing countries criticise loss and damage insurance scheme pushed by G7
Loss and damage is arguably the most important and contentious issue being negotiated at Cop27, with developing and climate vulnerable nations united behind getting an agreement in Egypt to create a separate funding facility (to cover irreversible economic and non-economic costs) that can then be worked out over the next two years. But the G7 countries – historically the most responsible for the global greenhouse gases causing extreme weather events and slow-onset climate disasters and who have for years delayed and denied the need for a loss and damage fund – are pushing the Global Shield insurance scheme as an alternative. This has not gone down well with climate justice advocates or developing countries, some of which would be excluded for being too developed.
Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at Climate Action Network, a global network of 1800 civil society groups, criticised the Global Shield as “yet another distraction strategy”.
Why not create something new within the UNFCCC process which is more comprehensive and responds to the needs of developing countries, like the loss and damage facility, rather than investing their energies in an opaque initiative outside this process which is very limiting. It’s because they want to be in control, but this is just another way to delay progress on loss and damage ... Insurance companies went bankrupt after Hurricane Katrina, and there are many other stories from the US and Europe of places that have become uninsurable because of increasing frequency and intensity of climate disasters. Insurance is not the answer, this is a deception.
Teresa Anderson, global lead on climate justice for ActionAid International, described the initiative as a “distraction.” “An initiative that involves northern countries subsidising northern-owned insurance corporations should not be mistaken for loss and damage finance that supports communities on the front lines of the climate crisis.”
The insurance would not cover noneconomic impacts like loss of language and culture or the slow onset impact of sea level rise and melting glaciers, instead focusing on easier to quantify climate shocks like floods, hurricanes and wildfires.
Updated
We’ve been reporting a lot on the lack of food at Cop (it’s been on our reporters’ minds for obvious reasons).
But my colleague Damian Carrington has found that vegan campaigners have capitalised on the burger shortage.
Plant Based Treaty has partnered with local vegan cafe Veganist Sharm to distribute hundreds of free vegan burgers in the Green Zone to hungry delegates.
On Friday, Nilgün Engin and her team distributed 300 burgers in less than two hours and due to popular demand they will be returning with 400 vegan burgers on Monday in the Peace Park outside the Green Zone at 12pm.
Nilgün Engin, Plant Based Treaty campaigner said, “The scarcity of plant-based food options at Cop27 is astonishing given we are at a climate summit. A third of greenhouse gas emissions come from food and Cop27 should be showcasing climate-friendly plant-based food solutions rather than being part of the problem.”
There are barely any climate-friendly, plant-based meal offerings at the climate conference. The Cop27 menu features beef, chicken, fish and dairy products.
Updated
One of the major themes today at Cop27 is water – a subject of particular relevance to Egypt and much of water-starved Africa that isn’t always discussed at Cop.
The Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, has said the country’s water resources can no longer meet the needs of its growing population.
According to CNN: “In May, the Minister of Local Development announced that the country had entered a stage of ‘water poverty’ according to UN standards. The UN doesn’t have a metric for ‘water poverty’, but by its definition a country is considered water scarce when annual supplies drop below 1,000 cubic meters per capita, which the minister reported was the case.”
Egypt relies on the Nile for at least 90% of its fresh water supply, along with Sudan to the south which is also heavily reliant on the river, yet this vital water supply is currently under threat from both climate change and the filling of Egypt’s Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd), intended to provide electric power to much of the country.
Ethiopia, Egypt and to some extent Sudan have been locked in a bitter war of words over the filling of the dam’s reservoir, which Ethiopia began unilaterally and in secret, following multiple rounds of talks about water sharing that went nowhere.
Gerd threatens to drastically curtail the supply of water to the Blue Nile, which runs through Ethiopia and into Sudan before it meets the White Nile in Khartoum. Ethiopian officials say the hydroelectric power the dam provides is vital to their development, but others in Sudan and Egypt fear that it could prove to be an existential threat. One human rights activist based in Khartoum said the dam risks causing “a water war,” when I interviewed him on this issue shortly before the dam went online.
Meanwhile, while Egyptian officials have spoken of a nationwide need to conserve water, Sisi is also building a new capital in the desert outside of Cairo that features a “green river” of planted vegetation and a series of interlocking fake lakes.
Updated
UK Foreign Office climate and nature minister Lord Goldsmith has written us a guest post on rainforests:
In between all the formal events, we’ve made really huge progress on forests.
For example Indonesia’s key minister, Minister Nurbaya, has put forward a really high ambition plan involving protecting 66m ha of forest, restoring 9m ha of degraded peatland, planting 600,000 ha of mangrove and transferring millions of hectares of land to indigenous communities to look after. As Indonesia has said, the UK has played a really central role in this and we have committed to bringing together a coalition of support.
Lula’s election in Brazil also changes everything in Latin America, and it is for the rich world to come together to support his very ambitious vision of stopping deforestation and supporting the persecuted indigenous communities.
And we knew all this is possible. There are plenty of countries already doing it. Gabon, Costa Rica and many others have broken the link between economic development and environmental destruction.
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Cop27 Guardian best-dressed competition!
So, obviously Cop27 is a crucial event for the future of the planet, and we are discussing many important and incredibly depressing issues. However, there is still room for a bit of fun, I think.
My colleague Nina Lakhani has noticed how many people at Cop are wearing stunning outfits, dressing colourfully and beautifully each day at the conference centre.
She says: “One of the best things about attending Cop is the opportunity to meet folks from every corner of the planet, many of whom come wearing bright and beautiful traditional clothes. The Guardian team, which it’s fair to say would not win any best dressed competitions, wants your help honouring the best dressed Cop27 participants so if you’re here, please send in photos. If possible include the delegate’s name, country/Indigenous community, and role at Cop27.”
We’ve got a couple below, which Nina has taken.
Updated
During Cop weeks, scientists publish a huge swathe of depressing climate studies with the hope of focusing negotiators’ minds.
Today’s State of the Climate in Asia 2021 report from the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), has found that economic losses from drought, floods and landslides have rocketed in Asia. In 2021 alone, weather and water-related hazards caused total damage of US$ 35.6bn, affecting nearly 50 million people.
These climate change impacts are wreaking an ever-increasing human, financial and environmental toll, worsening food insecurity and poverty and holding back sustainable development.
Relevantly, for today, the future climate scenarios would likely cause extreme water stress. High mountain Asia, including the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau, contains the largest volume of ice outside of the polar region, with approximately an area of 100,000 km2 of glacier coverage. The rate of glacier retreat is accelerating and many glaciers suffered from intense mass losses as the result of exceptionally warm and dry conditions in 2021. These so-called water towers of the world are vital for freshwater supplies for the most densely populated part of the planet and so glacier retreat has major implications for future generations.
“The climate indicators and extreme events shown this report and expected increase in precipitation over much of Asia in the future shows just how vital it is to strengthen early warning systems,” said WMO secretary General, Prof Petteri Taalas. “The UN Early Warnings for All programme will help protect people from more frequent and intense extreme weather – and there are major gaps to be filled in Asia.”
Updated
Update on Lula – we are hearing that instead of speaking today, he may be addressing the conference on Wednesday instead. We will keep you posted.
Former No 10 adviser starts campaign on green growth
Those of us from the UK might remember the “anti-growth coalition” comments made by Liz Truss during her short and chaotic stint as prime minister.
Well, a former advisor to No 10, who worked under Boris Johnson and left in May this year, has started a campaign to tackle just that.
Truss appeared to believe tackling growth issues involved cutting taxes for the very wealthiest, borrowing a tonne of money to do so, fracking the living daylights out of the British countryside and banning solar power.
Sam Richards, who today launches his new campaign Britain Remade, has a slightly different approach.
The typical British family is now £6.8K worse off than a German family, £13.5K worse off than an American family, and, if we continue our current trajectory, is set to be poorer than a Polish family by the early 2030s.
We believe that Britain’s economic decline is not inevitable, but a result of political choices. Too often, politicians choose to prioritise loud well-organised special interests over the majority of voters.
If we’re to reduce our reliance on foreign gas and slash bills, we need to address the bottlenecks in our planning system preventing new supply of energy from being built. It is, to give one example, utterly baffling that the Government looks set to keep the effective ban on onshore wind farms at the same time as forking out billions to cap household and business energy bills this winter.
Too often policy mistakes, like the continued ban on onshore wind, happen because politicians listen to a vocal minority of voters opposed to building. In fact, polling we’ve commissioned shows there is majority support for new wind and solar projects.
1/ Since leaving Number 10, I have been building a new campaign focused on tackling Britain's biggest problem: economic growth (or at least, the lack of it.)
— Sam Richards (@samrichardswebb) November 14, 2022
Introducing @BritainRemade
And the old government SpAd team has joined together to voice these concerns – Alok Sharma’s former advisor Eamonn Ives supports the campaign. He said: “I would encourage anyone and everyone to follow their work. Such an important endeavour, headed up by some of the smartest people I know!”
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My colleague Fiona Harvey had a great chat with Labour’s Ed Miliband over the weekend.
Labour’s shadow climate and environment secretary outlined his plans for an international renewable energy coalition, gave his thoughts on King Charles being banned from Cop, and praised Cop26 president Alok Sharma but said that our government has let him down by being rubbish on climate and undermining him.
Read her full interview below – it is well worth a look.
UN climate boss urges countries to 'build bridges' and set climate targets
Good morning from Sharm el-Sheikh and welcome to our coverage of week two of Cop27. Here is what to look out for on water and gender day of the climate summit:
Countries are holding an informal stock taking plenary this morning of Cop27 so far, with the UN climate boss Simon Stiell urging countries to use their remaining time in Egypt to “build the bridge needed” to make progress on 1.5C, adaptation, finance, and loss and damage.
As week 2 of #COP27 begins, let me remind negotiators that people & planet are relying on this process to deliver. Leaders asked for action.
— Simon Stiell (@simonstiell) November 14, 2022
Let’s use our remaining time in Egypt to build the bridges needed to make progress on 1.5, adaptation, finance and loss & damage.
If you want to go into the detail on the level of agreement so far, Carbon Brief’s senior policy editor Simon Evans has gone through the negotiation draft texts and highlighted the progress (or lack of it). Note that something being [in brackets] in UN negotiations means that it is still being negotiated.
It's halfway point at #COP27
— Simon Evans (@DrSimEvans) November 13, 2022
Where do things stand?
To help us (and you!) keep up, @CarbonBrief has made a free-to-use, colour-coded text tracker
It shows where negotiations are moving forward and where (in shades of red) disagreements remainhttps://t.co/sEYWJQHnJI pic.twitter.com/OrwPRq6CWL
Water and the effects of the climate crisis on water scarcity will come under scrutiny on Monday, reports the Guardian’s environment editor Fiona Harvey. She has written a fantastic curtain raiser on what to look out for this week.
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World leaders are meeting at the G20 in Bali, Indonesia over the next two days, where the climate crisis will be discussed by major powers. Xi and Biden are scheduled to speak, with climate talks still suspended between the world’s largest economies after house speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, which China said violated its sovereignty.
Thanks for following along.
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Good morning and welcome to the Guardian’s Cop27 liveblog. I’m Helena Horton, an environment reporter here at the Guardian, and will be running the blog until my colleague Bibi Van Der Zee takes over this afternoon.
We are over halfway through ( unless it over-runs!) and today is looking to be jam-packed. It’s also water day, and those of us who have lived through drought this year will know what a crucial issue that is.
Today there will be a large focus on gender, and we will be hearing from Indigenous women later on.
Stay tuned and please do send me any tips/thoughts to helena.horton@guardian.co.uk
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