We’re winding up for the day here, after all that Lula excitement. Time for a round of Caipirinhas please!
While they’re being mixed, what happened on day nine?
SUMMARY:
The Brazilian president-elect, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Lula for short), addressed Cop27 and promised that “Brazil is back”.
He confirmed that Germany and Norway will reopen the Amazon fund, called for Cop30 to be held in the Amazon rainforest, and announced that he would be setting up a ministry for Indigenous people.
Lula also said that it is time to reform the UN and the global settlement. “The world has changed.”
Elsewhere, Costa Rica which now has a new leader, has backed away from the coalition it co-founded to end oil and gas
Interest in a proposal to “phase down all fossil fuels” is growing, with even the US now giving (extremely qualified) support
There is continuing anxiety over the glacial progress over loss and damage negotiations. The Alliance of Small Island States, a negotiating bloc, fear many developed countries are backtracking on their commitment to make progress.
There is anxiety elsewhere too, that countries are trying to backslide on their climate commitments, with the first tentative drafts of decisions from the summit showing attempts to unpick agreements and water down promises.
That’s it for today! My colleague Sandra Laville will be blogging first thing in the morning. Thanks for joining us!
Support for a proposal to "phase down all fossil fuels" is growing
According to Bloomberg, the US’s climate envoy John Kerry is now giving his backing to “a proposal to phase down all fossil fuels at the UN climate conference as long as it focuses on projects with unchecked emissions”.
India has already called for all countries to commit to phasing down fossil fuels with the UK’s backing, and earlier in the week the EU joined the call too.
Bloomberg reports Kerry as saying:
“It has to be unabated oil and gas … Phase down, unabated, over time. The time is a question, but ‘phase down’ is the language we supported.”
Support for the principle appears to be widening. Tuvalu’s Minister of Finance, Seve Paeniu, says: “Tuvalu welcomes India and the European Unions suggestion to include ‘all’ fossil fuel phase out in the COP27 cover text and encourages governments to join this call in the face of the climate emergency. The world needs a just and equitable energy transition, and investing in 100% renewable energy is the only way to achieve this.”
And Stephanie Crouzat, the climate ambassador for France, says: “India is floating the idea to phase down all fossil fuels, I think we should take them up on it. We should push phasing down and eventually phasing out.”
Updated
Outside Cop27, climate activists have targetted another work of art, following in the footsteps of the soup-and-Sunflowers attack that went viral.
Now members of Letzte Generation Österreich (Last Generation Austria) have smeared “non-toxic fake oil” all over the glass covering of Gustav Klimt’s Death and Life. The Guardian’s art critic, Jonathan Jones, is not impressed.
I can’t pretend to respect this form of protest. It makes no sense and possesses no moral coherence. It is arrogant to go into a museum and assume everyone around you is some kind of complacent aesthete who doesn’t care about the environment. “What is worth more? Art or life?” asked the Just Stop Oil activists who threw the tomato soup at Van Gogh’s Sunflowers. What a ridiculously false debate. Loving art does not devalue life – on the contrary, it helps us value and see nature. All the art in the National Gallery in London, where the soup attack happened, from Giotto to Van Gogh, is based on looking hard at life. It praises our planet.
Vulnerable developing nations are getting very worried about the loss and damage negotiations at Cop27. The issue of funds to recover from the climate disasters that poorer nations did very little to cause is pivotal to the success of the summit.
But the Alliance of Small Island States, a negotiating bloc, fear many developed countries are backtracking on their commitment to make progress. Molwyn Joseph, Aosis chair and the environment and health minister of Antigua and Barbuda, said:
“Aosis and our fellow developing countries have toiled for the past 30 years to be heard on this issue. We have come too far to fail. But some developed countries are furiously trying to stall progress and even worse, attempting to undermine small island developing states. So, not only are they causing the worst impacts of the climate crisis, they are playing games with us.”
“There have only been informal consultations, to date, on this critical agenda item, and no official launch of negotiations.”
“If other countries continue to cast aside small islands to serve the interests of the fossil fuel industry, they cannot expect our people to swim in a stagnant pool. The tide has turned on loss and damage. Why do you continue to turn a deaf ear to the cries of our people? I am being very clear – small island developing states will no longer stand for delay on loss and damage finance.”
The news that Germany and Norway will reopen the Amazon fund has been welcomed. Arild Skedsmo, senior analyst at Norway’s largest private pension company, KLP (which controls about US$80bn) says: “In Norway, we had an immediate positive reaction to Lula’s victory with our government offering to reopen access to the financial resources of the Amazon Fund. These resources were frozen as a result of the negative policy actions by outgoing President Bolsonaro that drove deforestation to record high levels and undermined indigenous rights.”
He welcomed Lula’s speech. “The President-elect is right to emphasise that the survival of Amazon is needed for survival of the planet given the threat of climate change. It is welcome that Lula emphasised protection in all Brazil’s biomes including with international support. Indigenous peoples’ rights are now back high on the agenda as Lula vowed to promote indigenous peoples as protagonists and beneficiaries which is a very welcome, stark change from the outgoing President’s policies.”
Hallo, I’m Bibi van der Zee and I’ll be taking over from my colleague Patrick Greenfield for the last couple of hours of the day.
The excitement of the speech from President Lula is still making itself felt. Brazil is back in the fight was his main message, and it seems to have resonated with so many of those listening.
O BRASIL VOLTOU PRA SER A VOZ DO MUNDO TODO NA LUTA POR JUSTIÇA CLIMÁTICA ⭐️
— Mídia NINJA (@MidiaNINJA) November 16, 2022
Esse é o clima na fala de Lula durante a #COP27
📹 @MidiaNINJA pic.twitter.com/385NAx54rv
Updated
It's time to reform the UN, says Lula
Lula challenges the current global settlement. “When I was president of Brazil, I said the UN had to advance. I can’t imagine that the UN is directed by the same geopolitical rational of world war two. The world has changed. Continents want to be represented. There’s no explanation why the winners of world war two should be in charge and the directors of the UN security council. The world needs new global governance on the climate issue.”
He adds: “If there’s one thing we need to change on global governance, it’s climate change. Otherwise time goes by, we die and things do not change. It’s with this objective that I came back to unite us. I didn’t come back to do what I did already. I came back to do more. I want to make a fairer world and a more effective humanity. Thank you very much.”
Cheers once again, as he bows to the audience then pauses to have his picture taken with some of them. There is a general starstruck feeling in the room.
Updated
Lula says when Brazil chairs the G20 summit in 2024, the climate agenda will be one of the main priorities. He will be pressing rich countries to discuss their promises.
“I would like to remind you that rich countries said they would raise $100bn at Cop15 in Copenhagen to help the less developed countries to face climate change.”
This has not, as everyone knows, happened. He says that is what leads us to another important theme of this Cop.
“We need financial mechanisms to remedy loss and damage caused by climate change. We cannot postpone this debate. We need to deal with the reality of countries that have to protect the territorial integrity of their countries threatened. It is time to act. We cannot live with this rush towards the abyss.”
Updated
Now he puts forward two proposals. The first is a meeting of the Amazon countries to look at the integrated development of the region.
“The second proposal is for Brazil to host Cop30 in 2025.” (Cheers from the audience who seem enthusiastic about being in Brazil in November.) “There are many cities that could host Cop30. I want to say it should be in the Amazon region.”
He says he would like everyone here to understand the importance of this part of the world.
Updated
He says: “I am sure that Brazilian agri-business will be a strategic ally in our government looking for regenerative and sustainable agriculture. We have 30m hectares of degraded lands. We don’t need to deforest one square metre to be one of the largest food producers in the world.
“That’s why we are proposing a world alliance for food security and the reduction of inequality.”
He is seeking cooperation between the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Indonesia and Brazil, the countries that have 52% of primary forests. “We will seek financing mechanisms to stop the advancement of global warming.”
Updated
He now announces that Germany and Norway are restarting the Amazon fund, which was shut down under the previous Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro. “We are open to international cooperation to conserve our biomes. But always under Brazilian sovereignty. We will never give it up,” Lula says.
Updated
Lula will create a Ministry for Indigenous people
Again he speaks about what his government will do on deforestation: “There is no planet security without a protected Amazon. We will do whatever it takes to have zero deforestation and degradations of our biomes.
“For this reason, I would like to announce that efforts to fight climate change will have the highest profile in my next government. We will prioritise the fight against deforestation of all of our biomes and reverse years of the previous governments. In 2021, we had a deforestation of 13,000 sq km. The destruction will stay in the past.
“Environmental crimes have grown in a scary way under the previous government. We will strengthen oversight bodies. We will punish illegal activities: gold miners, loggers, farmers.”
Lula also announces a ministry for Indigenous people. “These actions affect native people above all. That is why we will create a ministry of native people so they can have their own voice.”
Updated
And now he is returning specifically to the subject of the climate crisis and the way it will affect people.
“Nobody is safe. In the US, they live with tropical storms and more and more powerful storms. In Brazil, which is a forest and hydro power, we experienced drought and experienced devastating floods. Europe faces an extreme heat situation with fires and unprecedented deaths.
“And although it is the continent with the lowest GHG emissions, Africa has drought. I repeat: nobody is safe.”
Updated
“There is not two Brazils. I want to say there are not two planet Earths. We are one sole species called humanity.” He attacks inequality, arguing that it will undermine everyone’s future.
Lula says: “We need to build confidence with our people and overcome our immediate national interest so we can build a new international order to overcome the needs of the present times.”
Updated
Lula: 'Brazil is back'
He warms to this theme. “I would like to say to you all that Brazil is back. Brazil is back to resume its ties with the world and to once again fight hunger in the world. To cooperate once again with the poorest countries – above all Africa – to cooperate with technology transfers to build a better future for our peoples.
“We are back. We are back to help build a peaceful world order based on dialogue and multilateralism. The world of today is not the same as the world in 1945.”
He says the veto power of the security council must be ended for true peace.
Updated
“Brazil is back,” he says simply, and is greeted by cheers.
Now he turns to the subject of the Amazon and to his renewed pledges to fight deforestation.
“The survival of the Amazon also depended on the election. Civilisation and values are back. The respect and human rights are back. Brazil has already shown the world that that path to ending deforestation. We reduced deforestation 83% while increasing agricultural GDP 75%.”
Updated
He says frankly: “We need more resources for a problem that was created by rich countries but is disproportionally felt by the most vulnerable.”
The good news, he says, is that Brazil will rejoin the fight. “Today, I am here to say that Brazil is ready to join once again to join effort to build a healthier planets. Brazil has just ended elections. One of the most decisive in its history. It was followed in an unprecedented way by other countries. It could help control the rise of authoritarian right and climate denialists in the world.”
He now moves on to the subject of the climate crisis and the warning signals he says the world has ignored. He speaks about the geopolitical challenges ahead.
“The planet warns us at every moment that we need each other to survive. Alone we are vulnerable to the climate tragedy. Nevertheless we ignored these warnings.
“We have spent trillions of dollars that only result in destruction and death. We experience a moment where we have multiple problem: nuclear war, crisis of food supply, energy, erosion of biodiversity, inequality.
“These are hard times. But it was always in difficult times that humanity overcame challenges. We need more confidence.”
Updated
He begins by saying: “Thank you. I want to thank first of all the president of Egypt for inviting me here. I have a great joy participating in this event with the United Nations that we have all learned to respect.”
Brazilian president-elect Lula comes in, proceeded by a large security detail. There are cheers and whoops and “Olé, olé, olé, ola, Lula, Lula” erupts as he enters with the Egyptian foreign minister.
He is now addressing Cop27.
People have been told to take their seats again. “The president is here,” we are told.
Lula’s speech is so popular at Cop27 that the overflow room is now … overflowing. Still, we wait.
The overflow is overflowing! #COP27 pic.twitter.com/HOaX8DGTen
— Ellie Kinney (@EllieKinney) November 16, 2022
Updated
Maybe not. People are up again taking photos with each other. The event is running 15 minutes late.
People are being asked to take their seats. We are about to begin …
Updated
When Lula won power at the end of last month, he promised a return to the environmental policies of his first presidency which resulted in an enormous drop in the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest.
“We will fight for zero deforestation in the Amazon … Brazil and the planet need the Amazon alive,” he said in his first speech after winning power.
“We are going to restart the monitoring and surveillance of the Amazon and combat any kind of illegal activity,” he vowed. “We are not interested in a war over the environment but we are ready to defend it from any threat.”
Here’s the full report from the Guardian’s Tom Phillips.
Security guards have got the Sellotape out to fix last minute trip hazards on parts of the carpet where Lula is about to enter. They have also turned their attention to the TV cables to make sure the Brazilian president-elect does not go flying when he enters the room.
Updated
Marina Silva, a former Lula environment minister, Carlos Nobre, a Brazilian scientific expert on the Amazon rainforest, and Tasso Azevedo, one of the architects of the Amazon Fund, have just entered the room and taken their seats. The president-elect is surely close.
Updated
Security guards are holding back a large crowd at the door of the event as seats slowly fill up inside. It is hard to see how there will be space for everyone. “Olé, olé, olé, ola, Lula, Lula” is being chanted intermittently outside. It is clear who they want to see.
We go again… “Ole, Ole, Ola, Lula, Lula” from the crowd at the door.
— Patrick Greenfield (@pgreenfielduk) November 16, 2022
Even the security guards are laughing. #COP27 pic.twitter.com/OS7yalXM4U
Updated
The view from the other side of the door…
What a photo! The attention of #COP27 turn towards @LulaOficial 's address. https://t.co/AYk663gNrT
— Patrick Greenfield (@pgreenfielduk) November 16, 2022
Lula is definitely this year’s Obama. These people are already queuing for his #cop27 speech, which isn’t due for another hour pic.twitter.com/dptLX23yVY
— Adam Vaughan (@adamvaughan_uk) November 16, 2022
Updated
Costa Rica backs away from coalition it co-founded to end oil and gas
Costa Rica has long been an environmental superstar on the international stage. It is the only tropical country in the world that has successfully halted and reversed deforestation, and nearly all of its electricity comes from renewable power.
A year ago at Cop26, it co-launched an alliance with Denmark to set an end date for oil and gas exploration and extraction. But the election of a new president earlier this year has changed the Central American country’s position on the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance (BOGA). It remains a member but a Costa Rican minister did not participate in the alliance’s event earlier today at Cop27, where Fiji and the US state of Washington were announced as new members.
Updated
Dear readers, good afternoon from Sharm el-Sheikh.
I am sitting in the Ibis action room at Cop27 where, in an hour and a half (3pm London time), the Brazilian president-elect, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, will address the climate summit.
I was at a side event that Lula attended earlier today and it felt hopeful. Hundreds of people – including scientists, leading diplomats and NGO heads – were there to catch a glimpse of the man who had promised to aim for zero deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.
In a conference that has often been dominated by lack of ambition, a different future felt possible again. “Olé, olé, olé, ola, Lula, Lula” is still ringing in my ears. I am sure we’ll hear that chant again this afternoon on biodiversity day at Cop27.
Please send comments and questions to my Twitter @pgreenfielduk or my email patrick.greenfield@theguardian.com
Updated
Rightio, that’s it from me, Damien Gayle, for today. My esteemed colleague Patrick Greenfield will take you through the rest of the day’s action at Cop27.
Updated
Angst is building around the world over the progress of the loss and damage talks at Cop27. Global Justice Now has said delays by richer countries over the funding for the countries worst affected by climate breakdown are “reprehensible”.
Global Justice Now has a number of staff in Sharm el-Sheikh helping to lobby for a progressive outcome to the talks. The organisation has a commitment to “climate justice”, where the changes needed to avert climate disaster are not carried out at the expense of traditionally marginalised people. A spokesperson for Global Justice Now said:
Rich countries need to stop holding up talks and evading their historic responsibility for loss and damage. The countries most impacted by climate chaos are calling for a new UN fund to provide predictable, additional compensation for loss and damage – more dialogue on insurance schemes is not good enough.
They needn’t worry about how they would finance a new fund – there is a clear case for greatly increased taxation on fossil fuel companies, with the Big 5 corporations reporting $170bn in profit in the past 12 months. Over 600 of their lobbyists are here at Cop, including even on some countries’ negotiating delegations, so it’s not hard to imagine where the hold-up might be coming from.
With only a few days left, it is reprehensible that rich countries are using more dither and delay to try and hold back climate justice when lives are being lost and futures eroded.
Updated
Concern growing over blocks to progress on loss and damage negotiations
Mary Robinson, a former president of Ireland, has become the latest significant voice at Cop27 to raise concerns over the progress in negotiations on measures to address the loss and damage suffered by poorer countries as a result of climate change.
Robinson, who heads a group of prominent former world leaders known as the Elders, said China and Saudi Arabia were holding up talks on the issue, which has been hard fought for by countries of the global south that are on the frontlines of the climate crisis. According to quotes carried by the Reuters news agency, she said:
There does seem to be a bit of a block in loss and damage. There isn’t an agreement, it would appear, across the board, on a fund here and now.
I’m also very worried about the fact that the Santiago Network negotiations last night came up with a real problem because China and Saudi Arabia - and I’m naming names … are trying to block technical assistance for loss and damage going to the most vulnerable countries.
A spokesperson for the Saudi delegation to the talks declined to comment on Robinson’s remarks, Reuters said.
Updated
Lula calls for Amazon Cop in 2025
I can now give you some more details on Lula’s appearance at Sharm el-Sheikh, thanks to the news wires. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president-elect, has said he wants the 2025 Cop summit to be held in the Amazon region, as he promised to fight deforestation.
“I am here to say to all of you that Brazil is back in the world,” Lula was quoted as saying by Agence France-Presse. “Brazil was not born to be an isolated country.
“We will put up a very strong fight against illegal deforestation,” he said.
We saw earlier the rapturous welcome given to Lula at Cop27. He is on his first international trip after defeating the far-right incumbent president, Jair Bolsonaro, who presided over years of rampant Amazon deforestation. Under Bolsonaro’s pro-agribusiness administration average annual deforestation increased 75% compared with the previous decade.
Lula, who spoke at an event alongside Amazon region governors, announced the creation of a ministry of Indigenous people, vowing to “take very good care” of the region’s communities.
Updated
The Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance’s side event is just beginning. Patrick Greenfield is on the scene. He writes:
The launch of the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance (Boga) by Costa Rica and Denmark at Cop26 last year attracted huge media interest, with reporters packed into the press conference in Glasgow.
A year on, momentum behind the group, which aims to plot the path to the end of oil and gas, has been lost. The new Costa Rican president has distanced himself from the alliance’s aims and oil and gas exploration has grown following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
At Cop27 today, Boga has grown by another country – Fiji – while Washington state in the US has joined. Portugal has upgraded its membership to a full part of the alliance.
The Guardian understands Denmark has been speaking with other countries about joining the alliance. Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon said she was still considering joining at Cop27 last week.
Boga said Sweden and Quebec had both passed legislation banning oil and gas extraction on their territories, while California had taken strong action to protect communities from oil drilling. France is enacting legislation to enshrine a ban on overseas public finance for fossil fuel.
The Danish climate ambassador, Tomas Anker Christensen, said: “We have long been aware of the need to move away from fossil fuels to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change. The impact of the Russian invasion and global energy crisis has made that even clearer. It is especially important to assist developing countries in phasing out oil and gas production and today we take an important step.”
🔊Starting now: #BOGA’s #COP27 side event on ‘Moving Beyond Oil and Gas’ with two brilliant panels, and some special announcements! Join us:
— The Beyond Oil & Gas Alliance (@beyondoilgas) November 16, 2022
➡️ Room 5 (Memphis), UNFCCC Blue Zone
➡️ Live online https://t.co/1ol0arDjgV pic.twitter.com/lDLInm5MBv
Updated
Long-promised UK deposit scheme will take another two years
A long-mooted deposit return scheme in the UK will not be in place for a further two years, the UK environment secretary said on Wednesday, writes Fiona Harvey, Guardian environment correspondent.
“It will be another couple of years at least,” Thérèse Coffey told journalists at Cop27. “Scotland has not started theirs yet. We are getting on with our environmental targets and a business plan and Elms. We are coming up to the fifth anniversary of the 25 year environment plan.”
She said the UK government was still looking at investment zones and could not say whether they would go ahead without environmental protections.
She said she was “surprised” to find that the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs was not further ahead in setting out targets on air and water quality under the Environment Act 2021 but said these were being worked on.
Updated
Brazilian president wants to hold a Cop in the Amazon
Lula has called for a future Cop to take place in the Amazon. In a tweet, the Brazilian president says (according to Twitter’s own translation engine):
Let’s talk to the secretary-general of the UN for the next op to be done in Brazil, in the Amazon. I think it is important that the people who defend the Amazon know the region and the concrete reality.
Vamos falar com o secretário geral da ONU para que a próxima COP seja feita no Brasil, na Amazônia. Acho importante que as pessoas que defendem a Amazônia conheçam a região e a realidade concreta. #COP27
— Lula (@LulaOficial) November 16, 2022
The earliest opportunity that an Amazon Cop could take place would probably be 2025, with Dubai having already clinched Cop28.
Australia was hoping for Cop29, but Anthony Albanese’s government has pushed back its bid – to be made in conjunction with Pacific countries – to Cop31 in 2026 after recognising that it has little chance before.
Under the UNFCCC’s rotational hosting system between five country groupings, Cop29 is set to be in eastern Europe.
The Australian climate change minister, Chris Bowen, told an event on Tuesday night he expected Bulgaria to host Cop29 and Brazil to get Cop30. He said the Australia/Pacific bid for Cop31 was being well received.
Turkey also announced a bid for Cop31 as it updated its nationally determined contribution this week. The nationally determined contribution wasn’t particularly well received as it would lead to emissions still rising until 2040.
[With thanks to Adam Morton, Guardian Australia’s environment and climate editor, for the details on forthcoming Cops]
Updated
As we are waiting for Lula to speak, now is a good time to reflect on the two Brazils at Cop27, writes Patrick Greenfield.
There are two main Brazilian pavilions. One is the official government stand, where members of the outgoing Bolsonaro administration have been speaking, complete with disappointed men in business suits holding forth on industrial opportunities in the Amazon.
The other, the Brazil climate action hub, has been the base for politicians, scientists and civil society members close to Lula’s incoming administration. There, the events are full of life: indigenous leaders and environmentalists discussing the protection of the Amazon and the dire consequences of not doing so. “Brazil is back” is the message there.
This was the reaction as Lula arrived earlier.
There’s a big roar as @LulaOficial arrives and files into a side room. He is set to speak alongside governors from the Amazon shortly. #Cop27 pic.twitter.com/AMbRZHTRNo
— Patrick Greenfield (@pgreenfielduk) November 16, 2022
Updated
Funding for the countries that are on the frontlines of the climate crisis was supposed to have been one of the big themes of this year’s summit.
But the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) and other developing countries have said they are gravely concerned by the lack of progress on funding for loss and damage.
The chair of AOSIS, Sir Molwyn Joseph, who is Antigua and Barbuda’s environment minister, has accused some developed countries of attempting to stall progress “and even worse, attempting to undermine small island states”. He said:
We have come too far to fail on loss and damage finance. Three-quarters of humanity is relying on a favourable outcome at COP27.
AOSIS and our fellow developing countries have toiled for the past thirty years to be heard on this issue. AOSIS has worked tirelessly this year to build consensus, devise a clear loss and damage response fund proposal, and ensure the commitment of the international community to come to Cop27 and negotiate on this issue in good faith.
Now, we are here, and some developed countries are furiously trying to stall progress and even worse, attempting to undermine small island developing states. So, not only are they causing the worst impacts of the climate crisis, they are playing games with us in this multilateral process.
If other countries continue to cast aside small islands to serve the interests of the fossil fuel industry, they cannot expect our people to swim in a stagnant pool. The tide has turned on loss and damage. Why do you continue to turn a deaf ear to the cries of our people? Why do you continue to call into question the very credibility of this process?
Updated
Brazilian president Lula has arrived at Cop27
Lula has arrived!
Patrick Greenfield is still there taking in the scene. He writes:
There’s a big roar from the crowd as Lula arrives and files into a meeting room next to the pavilion.
Chants of “Ole, ole, ole, ola, Lula, Lula!” restart. It is unclear whether he is going to address the crowd. I have not seen so much excitement at Cop27 so far.
I’ve been told that Lula is going to speak alongside Amazon governors at the event.
What a rockstar, can’t even see him! pic.twitter.com/GzOWPG6AzO
— Frankie Leach (@francesleach_) November 16, 2022
Updated
Not all is grim at Cop. Enthusiastic crowds are awaiting the appearance of the Brazillian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – or Lula, as he’s more popularly known, at a side event.
Our man Patrick Greenfield is among them and has posted a video of the moment on Twitter. He writes:
The incoming Brazilian president is not scheduled to formally address the climate summit for another six hours but Lula fever has arrived at Cop27.
I am stood in a large crowd waiting to hear Lula speak at a side event, who are already singing his name in anticipation. Senior diplomats, NGO heads and the world’s media are crowded round the event trying to catch a glimpse of the Brazilian president elect when he arrives. Lula has pledged to aim for zero deforestation in the Amazon.
“Ole, ole, ola… Lula… Lula”
— Patrick Greenfield (@pgreenfielduk) November 16, 2022
Big crowds waiting for @LulaOficial to speak at a side event at #Cop27 pic.twitter.com/cZuTWWL1rY
After the environmental destruction presided over by his immediate predecessor, the rightwinger Jair Bolsonaro, there are big hopes Lula will act to protect Brazil’s environment, and the jewel in its crown, the Amazon rainforest.
But the man so many have pinned their hopes on has been embroiled in environmental controversy already this week, after he turned up at Egypt in a private jet.
Lula is far from the only Cop attendee to have arrived via private aviation. Data from FlightRadar showed 36 private jets landed at Sharm el-Sheikh between 4 and 6 November, and 64 flew into Cairo, 24 of which had come from Sharm el-Sheikh.
Updated
Tuesday brought the grim news of fears that some countries were backsliding on their climate commitments, with the first tentative drafts of decisions from the summit showing attempts to unpick agreements and water down promises.
Today our team will be closely watching developments in the negotiations, in particular staying alive to the possibility that extreme positions – such as attempts to scrap the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C – could have been advanced as negotiating gambits, rather than serious attempts to rewrite global goals.
This morning, a communique issued by the G20 group of industrialised nations, whose summit in Indonesia is taking place in parallel with Cop27, reiterated their commitment to 1.5C.
Noting the IPCC assessments that the impact of climate change will be much lower at a temperature increase of 1.5C compared with 2C, we resolve to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5C. This will require meaningful and effective actions and commitment by all countries …
The unequivocal G20 statement comes after a number of leaked drafts from Cop27 showed potential reversals in various areas. The central goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C has been targeted by India and China, who instead want to return to the Paris agreement goal of an upper limit of 2C.
Another draft showed proposals to halve commitments to finance climate adaptation. You can read more about the contentious drafts in our story from last night.
Updated
Cop watchers are still reeling from the dramatic and at times farcical scenes at last night’s Russian Federation Cop27 event.
It was, Damian Carrington and Nina Lakhani report, and notable for two things: the shouts of “war criminals” and the complete absence of any discussion of the nation’s oil and gas production. The latter is despite Russia being the second biggest oil and gas producer in the world, and carbon emissions from fossil fuels being the overwhelming cause of the climate crisis.
The event began with protesters repeatedly shouting “you are war criminals”, before they were swiftly removed from the room. “The event is about the climate agenda, not the political agenda,” the chair said. However, in the 75 minutes that followed, the role of fossil fuels was not mentioned by the six men who comprised the panel.
Sergei Anoprienko, the deputy environment minister, spoke first about the economic damage being caused by melting permafrost and about eliminating refuse landfill sites. Kirill Komarov, from the state-owned nuclear company Rosatom, spoke at length about Russia’s nuclear power capabilities. “The arguments against nuclear are very often coloured politically and are emotional,” he said, adding that a floating nuclear power plant in a remote peninsula had allowed “children to see for the first time that snow can be white”.
A scientific adviser to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, talked about monitoring greenhouse gases and a special breed of poplar tree that could absorb more carbon as it grew.
Also on the panel was Vyacheslav Fetisov, the UN Environment Programme’s goodwill ambassador for Russia, a deputy in the Russian Duma and a former ice hockey star, who spoke about the need to preserve access to water. He also railed against the sanctions imposed on Russia after it invaded Ukraine: “We are ready to cooperate but we are hit with sanctions, which includes green and energy-saving technology. I don’t understand.”
As the event turned to questions, the BBC’s climate editor Justin Rowlatt approached the stage with a camera operator, asking: “Are you going to pay for the environmental damage you have caused in Ukraine?” as a result of the invasion, but was quickly removed from the room.
The final question from the audience was what Russia thought about India’s proposal to include the need to “phase down all fossil fuels” in Cop27’s final decision text, rather than just “phase down coal” as was in the Glasgow pact agreed at Cop26. This produced the gnomic response: “Coal is still alive, so let us wait.”
The panellists had described Russia as a “climate responsible” nation. But the event provided little evidence of that.
Asked later why she had disrupted the event, the Ukrainian activist Svitlana Romanko, from Razom We Stand, said: “I am glad that I named evil by name and I was able to tell them what all Ukrainians would like to tell them if they were here. You are a terrorist state, you are genociding, torturing and killing us daily for nine months, your oil and gas are killing us. You are war criminals, you must not be here but in international court.”
Updated
Good morning from Sharm el-Sheikh where it is biodiversity day at Cop27. Here is what to expect:
Incoming Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is in town and he will address the summit at around 5pm local time (3pm GMT). The world will be especially keen to hear more about his plan to achieve zero deforestation in the Amazon. Yesterday, Lula met the US climate envoy John Kerry and China’s chief climate negotiator Xie Zhenhua, while those close to the president-elect have been reassuring people on the ground in Egypt that halting rampant deforestation in the Amazon will be a priority for his administration.
Earlier this week, Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Indonesia - the big three rainforest nations - announced they were forming an alliance to cooperate on their protection at the G20 in Bali. Confusingly, the agreement was signed on behalf of Brazil’s outgoing far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, although Lula’s team have also been in contact with the DRC and Indonesia. Listen out for more detail from Lula about how the three countries will cooperate.
Nature is taking centre stage in Egypt today just three weeks before the beginning of the biodiversity Cop15 in Montreal, Canada. Overnight, the architects of the Paris agreement have urged world leaders to reach an ambitious sister deal for nature while warning 1.5C is impossible without protecting ecosystems. Expect more on next month’s nature summit throughout the day.
Updated
Good morning, and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Cop27 climate conference being held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
Wednesday’s focus will be on biodiversity, and overnight four of the principal architects of the Paris Agreement on climate urged fellow leaders to come up with a similar deal for nature at the Cop15 conference which will take place in Canada in December.
“Leaders must secure a global agreement for biodiversity which is as ambitious, science-based and comprehensive as the Paris agreement is for climate change. Like the Paris agreement, it must encourage countries to pledge and also ratchet up their action commensurate with the size of the challenge,” said the statement by Laurence Tubiana, Christiana Figueres, Laurent Fabius and Manuel Pulgar-Vidal.
You can read my colleague Patrick Greenfield’s report here:
Elsewhere, today may be the day we see a first draft of the “cover text” for the conference, which may give an idea of how much progress – or otherwise – has been made at the talks.
You can also catch up on yesterday’s events here.
I’m Damien Gayle, and you can send me news tips, questions or anything else at damien.gayle@theguardian.com, or on Twitter at @damiengayle.
