What happened on the third day of Cop27 in Egypt?
After the leaders’ speeches of the first couple of days, most of the negotiations have now moved behind closed doors. The big discussions today were all around finance, and there does appear to have been some movement on this, as Damian Carrington reported, seeing positive momentum potentially starting to build on a pivotal issue, when the UK said it would allow some debt payment deferrals, while Austria and New Zealand put forward funding for loss and damage.
Other developments included:
The family of the jailed British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah demanded proof of life for the third day in a row
A Kulkalgal activist from the Torres Strait Islands said the way the world often treated Indigenous people was an insult and that he was at the conference in Egypt “fighting for our home”
Bill McKibben, a US environmentalist and founder of 350.org, told an audience: “This year we’ve fully understood the link between fossil fuels and fascism. Putin could not have invaded Ukraine without the profits from oil and gas, or cowered the west with threats of turning off the taps.”
The World Bank president, David Malpass, told the Guardian he was not a “climate denier”. The Donald Trump appointee previously said he did not “even know” if he accepted climate science.
Protesters staged rallies inside the central conference area, ignoring Egypt’s attempts to keep displays of dissent out of sight and out of mind.
Almost half of young people in Africa say they have reconsidered having children due to the climate crisis, according to a Unicef poll.
China’s envoy said the US had “closed the door” to climate talks and needed to reopen it. Xie Zhenhua said Beijing and Washington were having “informal talks”. Xie also hinted that China might contribute to a “loss and damage” fund.
John Kerry, the US climate envoy, unveiled a new global carbon credit trading initiative he said would be “critical” in helping developing countries transition to cleaner forms of energy. That received a mixed reaction from environmental groups.
And finally, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, accidentally started reading the wrong speech.
We’re winding down the blog for today – the finance day at Cop27. We’ll be blogging again tomorrow, with my colleague Helena Horton kicking off in the morning.
Updated
Over on the Conversation, they’re discussing whether Australia – which, over the weekend, bid to hold Cop 31 – actually deserves to host the summit.
Wesley Morgan, a research fellow at Griffith University in South-East Queensland, and a senior researcher with the Climate Council, says the new Australian government, which was elected on a platform of climate action will need to show that Australia has shaken off its bad old ways, and has really changed.
Australia can play a supersized role in the global transition to net-zero by exporting the clean energy commodities and critical minerals other countries need to cut emissions.
He takes a look at some of Australia’s less gloriuos actions in the past, such as Prime Minister Tony Abbott refusing to support Pacific calls for a global treaty to limit warming to to 1.5℃ above pre-industrial levels, and then PM Scott Morrison trying to water down a regional climate declaration in 2019. Australia will have to show real ambition now, he suggests.
By 2026, Australia will need to put in place policies that will drive deeper cuts to emissions, enabling us to strengthen our 2030 target and to set a much more ambitious 2035 target.
Global emissions must fall by 45% by 2030 to have any chance of achieving the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to 1.5℃. A wealthy nation like Australia – with vast, untapped, resources for renewable energy – should be aiming to reduce emissions by 75% this decade.
Raw sewage is leaking at the conference centre at Cop27 in Egypt, according to delegates, with pools of effluent seen next to boxes of drinking water.
The Guardian has been sent photos of the leak by a delegate, who said people queuing for the buses to leave the centre had to dodge raw sewage while they waited.
“As I tried to leave the conference centre, I was met with a stream of sewage running down the main road. The stretch is awful. There’s a huge puddle building by the exit. The sewage is about to contaminate drinks for tomorrow,” he said.
Workers could be seen clearing boxes of drinking water near the pools of waste in the photos. The delegate who took the photo said “the odd fleck and coagulation of human effluence” were visible.
More non-environment developments at #Cop27
— Patrick Greenfield (@pgreenfielduk) November 9, 2022
It seems like there’s been a raw sewage leak at the conference centre.
“It stinks. It’s about to contaminate drinks for tomorrow,” says one delegate. pic.twitter.com/D9Dra6nx2j
Food and drink have been difficult to find at the conference centre in the desert in Egypt, with one delegate saying she was eating multiple ice creams, which have not been affected by supply problems.
The UNFCCC and presidency have been approached for comment.
Updated
Hunger striker's family ask for proof for life for third day in a row
The family of the jailed British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah are demanding proof of life for the third day in a row, after his mother visited the desert prison where he is being held in the hopes of receiving a letter from her son on his fourth day without water.
Mona Seif, Abd el Fattah’s sister, said at about 6pm Cairo time that their mother, the activist Laila Soueif, had just left Wadi Al Natrun prison “without a letter ... an explanation from authorities or any proof of life!”
“This is not the first time they do this with us, where Alaa suddenly disappears into a black hole ... but this is by far the cruelest,” she said.
Mama just called me, once again she is leaving without a letter from Alaa Abd El Fattah , an explanation from authorities or any proof of life!
— Mona Seif (@Monasosh) November 9, 2022
This is not the first time they do this with us, where Alaa suddnely disappears into a black hole .. but this is by far the cruelest.
The Egyptian authorities are increasingly under pressure to provide answers about Abd el-Fattah’s whereabouts and whether he is still alive, amid growing concern from his family that officials are force-feeding the democracy activist to keep him alive during Cop27. “Force-feeding is torture, and nothing should happen that’s against Alaa’s will,” Sanaa Seif, Abd el-Fattah’s sister, told the Guardian yesterday.
The Egyptian government’s efforts to cover up their poor human rights record with extremely questionable PR tactics continued today, after the MP Amr Darwish was ejected from Seif’s press conference at Cop27 for shouting abuse, a tactic unfortunately familiar to Egyptian dissidents based overseas. Today, a small group held a supposedly spontaneous protest in support of Darwish, according to the human rights defender Hossam Bahgat, who is at Cop27. The group had matching outfits, and printed stills of the video showing Darwish being ejected from the conference:
مظاهرة عفوية أمام البوابة الرئيسية لمقر المؤتمر وتصادف ارتداء المتظاهرين نفس اليونيفورم تضامنا مع النائب المطرود عمرو درويش عضو مجلس النواب عن تنسيقية شباب الأحزاب pic.twitter.com/EN2UgoCA0W
— hossam bahgat حسام بهجت (@hossambahgat) November 9, 2022
The Egyptian foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, who is also the Cop27 president, was pressed by Becky Anderson from CNN on Abd el-Fattah’s case, and what would happen if the democracy activist died during Cop27. Shoukry looked unusually perturbed as he gave his responses:
In recent months, @COP27P has come under criticism for Egypt’s human rights record and the jailing of activists, like Alaa Abd El-Fattah, who's been held for nearly a decade. In response, Egypt's FM told me they have a “very transparent way" of dealing with these issues.@MFAEgypt pic.twitter.com/04lRPl2Khk
— Becky Anderson (@BeckyCNN) November 8, 2022
“I believe within the penal code there is constant review of medical conditions for all inmates and the necessary healthcare is provided, so I think there might be a misconception as relates to his actual status,” he said. Mistreatment of detainees in Egypt’s prison system is common, according to Amnesty International, who said in 2021 that “Prisoners’ health and lives are ... endangered by the failure of prison authorities – either through neglect or deliberate denial – to provide individuals in their custody with adequate health care, in breach of their obligations under international law.”
Shoukry insisted that Abd el-Fattah’s trial had been fair, something that multiple rights organisations disagree with. Abd el-Fattah’s own lawyers were not granted access to his case file before he was sentenced to five years in prison for sharing a social media post about torture.
He also claimed that Abd el-Fattah “has not applied to be recognised by Egyptian government as being a British citizen”. Abd el-Fattah’s sister, Sanaa Seif, also received British citizenship while in detention through the same process and at the same time, and was granted consular access soon afterwards. His family and the British embassy have been requesting access to Abd el-Fattah in Wadi Al Natrun since December last year.
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While most governments haven’t bothered with new emissions reduction plans, Kiribati has stepped up.
In fact it has literally danced up, with the country’s president receiving the official plan to sign via a woman dancing up to him at an event at Cop27.
The president, Taneti Maamau, threw out some of his own moves as he waited for the woman to arrive with the pledge. He then solemnly signed it, after pointing out that the Pacific island country is responsible for about 0.0002% of the world’s emissions.
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Negotiators and activists have been saluting young campaigners today. António Guterres, the UN secretary general, spoke to a group of young people earlier and thanked them afterwards.
Young people, like the ones I met at #COP27 today, have been relentless in demanding #ClimateAction.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) November 9, 2022
The world owes them an enormous debt.
I am grateful for their persistence & courage - and I am proud to stand with them. pic.twitter.com/SEwI7LsTuD
And Farhana Yamin, a environmental lawyer and veteran of many Cops over the years, called for funders to direct money to youth climate movements and action. She argues Cop should be creating a special fund to maximise the impact that young campaigners can have.
Calling on funders across the globe to give a billion dollars to #youthmovements across #climate to enable them to continue the already great work they are doing in #climateaction.
— Farhana Yamin (she/her) (@farhanaclimate) November 9, 2022
#COP27 needs to center youth by committing a big fund that moves the needle for youth impact! pic.twitter.com/xZgRh0zrPp
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A few more pictures from today.
There is ALWAYS a polar bear. It must be written in the bylaws somewhere that no Cop can take place without a polar bear.
This is very Cop energy. There is always a lot of walking – or running – between meetings and events, and they have often been moved to another location/time/continent by the time you get there. It’s tiring.
A little more energy here. They’ll be sagging like everyone else by the middle of next week.
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At an event on the power and evils of fossil fuels hosted by Global Witness at the Ukraine pavilion, Bill McKibben, the American environmentalist and founder of 350.org, said: “This year we’ve fully understood the link between fossil fuels and fascism. Putin could not have invaded Ukraine without the profits from oil and gas, or cowered the west with threats of turning off the taps.”
McKibben, who was wearing a Free Alaa T-shirt, went on: “The industry is powerful enough to keep us hooked even though renewables are cheaper. But fossil fuels wreck the climate and the political climate, Ukraine has made that case very clear. We have to organise and create movements to out power them. We will win eventually, but the question is whether we’ll win in time.”
Every event at #Cop27 is a political event @billmckibben calling for the Egyptian regime to #FreeAlaa pic.twitter.com/pJL1lPXz5Q
— Nina Lakhani (@ninalakhani) November 9, 2022
“We should call this a fossil fuel conference not a climate conference,” he added, pointing to the omnipresent lobbyists, banks and insurance companies which enable the industry to operate globally.
In the audience was Svitlana Krakovska, a Ukrainian climate scientist and head of the Ukrainian delegation to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). “No dirty fossil fuels should be used to rebuild Ukraine, we have to fight our own fossil fuel dependency and build back green.”
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'It's humiliating': Kulkalgal activist on Indigenous voices being ignored
A Kulkalgal activist from the Torres Strait Islands has said the way the world often treats Indigenous people is an insult and that he is here at the Cop27 conference in Egypt “fighting for our home”.
Yessie Mosby, who in September was part of a group of claimants who made history during a landmark legal case that found the Australian government should compensate Torres Strait Islanders for their climate crisis failures, told the Guardian, “we were a race of people that we have hold on to a lot of ancient knowledge, which is being neglected and pushed aside:”.
In the Torres Strait, rising sea levels have led to saltwater seeping into the soil, causing coconut trees to become diseased and killing off the fruit.
“Whether it’s us in the saltwater, people of the Pacific Islands, or the people of the plains and the mountains, the swamps, who are facing climate change, and really want our voices to be heard. And we really need action.
“We the Torres Strait saltwater people we are so in tune with nature. We are a race that will see birds and they will tell us what the weather is going to be like tomorrow, we look at plants which tells us which particular fish are to be eaten or not to be eaten, we see plants which tells us that this particular fish in the water is poisonous.
“The world definitely has a lot to learn from us.”
Updated
Amelia Womack, who was deputy leader of the UK’s Green party until earlier this year, has tweeted a picture of a “manel” at Cop – a panel that consists entirely of men.
“It’s 2022. This just shouldn’t happen,” she says despondently.
A Manel (all male panel) at #COP27
— Amelia Womack (@Amelia_Womack) November 9, 2022
It’s 2022 - this just shouldn’t happen. pic.twitter.com/IcFPMUkrpJ
Interestingly the UN itself published this helpful guidance on how to avoid all-male panels just last summer.
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How have US climate envoy John Kerry’s plans for an “energy transition accelerator”, which will buy and sell carbon credits, been received?
Our reporters have been speaking to organisations about the plans, and some resistance is emerging. Carbon markets, in which corporations can continue polluting by buying credits such as an investment in renewables, have always been controversial and that does not appear to have changed.
Oliver Milman and Nina Lakhani report:
“A voluntary carbon credit programme won’t guarantee deep, real cuts in emissions. It’s tantamount to rearranging the deck chairs as the climate ship is going down,” said Rachel Cleetus, the policy director at Union of Concerned Scientists.
“This programme will exacerbate the very problem it claims it will help solve by failing to actually reduce emissions,” said Rachel Rose Jackson, the director of climate research and policy at Corporate Accountability. “And it will distract from the real and urgent need for the US to deliver on its climate debt through public finance.”
It’s a view shared by Mohamed Adow, the director of the thinktank Power Shift Africa, who said it was shameful the US continued to try and evade paying its fair share towards climate mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage.
“What we need is robust rules around emissions cuts and a comprehensive climate finance system that forces rich countries to deliver what they’ve promised, not try to find finance down the back of the sofa at the backwaters of the private sector,” Adow said. “Private sector finance should be separate from the country’s obligations under the UNFCCC.”
Updated
It is a warm day in the desert at Cop27 and several stands have “closed” signs next to the coffee machines. The long queues are back and people are hungry.
“There is a food crisis. It’s not ready yet. There are lots of wooden cafes outside that are not ready. It’s still a work in progress,” said one woman from an international NGO queuing for a coffee.
Near the pavilions, delegates could be seen taking water and Coca-Cola bottles from boxes left in the sun, meant to restock the cafes.
The food and water situation on day 4 of #Cop27 is not really improving. It seems like delegates have resorted to taking water and Coca Cola bottles from boxes meant to restock cafes and restaurants. 👀 pic.twitter.com/k8ppXCk1zp
— Patrick Greenfield (@pgreenfielduk) November 9, 2022
Updated
Hallo, I’m Bibi van der Zee, and I’ll be taking over this live blog for the afternoon, please email me on bibi.vanderzee@theguardian.com or message me @bibivanderzee with stories and thoughts about events. Many thanks to my colleague Oliver Holmes who has taken us through the morning’s events.
As the serious negotiations get under way in Egypt, one of our reporters here watched the UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, talking to MPs in parliament.
Helena Horton reports:
Back in the UK parliament, Rishi Sunak is doing a reprise of his speech made on Monday to Cop27.
He’s telling MPs we have to end our reliance on fossil fuels and vowing to make the UK a “clean energy superpower” and reminding the room that Labour’s prime ministers missed 12 out of 13 Cops when they were in power. He missed out that he was not planning on going to the conference until he faced political pressure for that decision.
When he made a similar speech to Cop delegates (granted, with fewer barbs levelled at the UK Labour party), it was labelled by environment groups as “tepid”.
The Green MP Caroline Lucas is similarly unimpressed.
She said: “Mindboggling that Rishi Sunak claims we need to ‘end our dependence on fossil fuels’, when his Govt is ploughing ahead with a swathe of new oil & gas licences, failed to rule out a new coal mine in Cumbria, and is bankrolling the fossil fuel industry with massive subsidies”.
Lucas added that it was “Laughable for Rishi Sunak to claim that he’ll make the UK a ‘clean energy superpower’, when he’s banned onshore wind, blocked new solar farms, and instead given the go-ahead to a host of new climate-wrecking oil & gas licences in the North Sea”.
Ed Miliband, the shadow climate secretary, was pretty unimpressed too. “Rishi Sunak is a fossil fuel PM who had to be dragged to COP27. Keir Starmer will make Britain a clean energy superpower.
“Higher bills, climate delay under the Tories. Lower bills, energy security, climate leadership with Labour. That is the choice at the next election”
Updated
What has happened so far today:
Busy morning as the conference gets into full swing and starts gathering momentum. Today’s theme has been “finance”, with loss and damage high on the agenda.
Here is what has happened today Cop27:
World Bank president David Malpass told the Guardian he is not a “climate denier”. The Donald Trump appointee has previously said he did not “even know” if he accepted climate science.
Protesters staged rallies inside the central conference area, ignoring Egypt’s attempts to keep displays of dissent out of sight and out of mind.
Almost half of young people in Africa say they have reconsidered having children due to the climate crisis, according to a Unicef poll.
China’s envoy said the US “closed the door” to climate talks and needed to reopen it. Xie Zhenhua has said Beijing and Washington are having ‘informal talks’.
Xie also hinted that China might contribute to a loss and damage fund.
John Kerry, the US climate envoy, unveiled a new global carbon credit trading initiative he said would be “critical” in helping developing countries transition to cleaner forms of energy. That has received a mixed initial reaction from environmental groups.
A series of symbolic moves on climate finance at Cop27 suggested positive momentum could be starting to build on a pivotal issue. The UK said it would allow some debt payment deferrals, while Austria and New Zealand put forward funding for loss and damage.
And finally, UN secretary general, António Guterres, accidentally started reading the wrong speech.
Updated
‘Significant’ symbolic moves on climate disaster funds lift hopes for Cop27
A series of symbolic moves on climate finance at Cop27 suggests positive momentum could be starting to build on a pivotal issue at the UN summit in Egypt.
The UK said it would allow some debt payment deferrals for countries hit by climate disasters, while Austria and New Zealand put forward funding for loss and damage, which is the cost of rebuilding in poorer nations after unavoidable climate impacts.
The provision of funding by rich, polluting nations to those vulnerable nations that have done little to cause the climate crisis is central to any success at Cop27. Beating global heating requires every nation to act but without progress on finance, developing countries will not trust developed countries and collective action will fail.
Leading economist Jeffrey Sachs has said the age of impunity on fossil fuel pollution by rich countries is over and an international court would award in favour of developing countries if they were able to sue for loss and damages.
Speaking to the Guardian at Cop27, the former special advisor to three UN secretary generals, said that historical emitters - including China and Brazil along with the US, European states and other major polluters - should pay for loss and damage in proportion with their greenhouse gas emissions.
If poor countries could go in and sue the rich countries, they’d say: ‘you wrecked the climate, we are paying the price, you help fix our homes’. This is how a court would do it but we don’t have an international court that way.
The justice is those who contributed historically to the rise of greenhouse gas concentrations and therefore, to these intensifying climate disasters ought to pay their share. This is quite basic. The rich countries have acted with impunity. But that’s over because actually, the power of the rich countries just to beat back the call for justice is over. And that’s what’s happening at this Cop.
The big net payers will be the United States and a few other countries because frankly, they’ve used a lot of fossil fuels over the years. And we know that the highly vulnerable small island states and countries in dry, poor countries, especially in Africa, are going to be major recipients.
Sachs said the World Bank and other Bretton Woods organisations needed to be reformed to face the climate crisis.
The world economy is big, the needs of the developing world are huge, especially with all these transformations needed. And yet the size of the actual lending is very, very modest, about $100 billion total, if you add the World Bank and the regional development bank’s. So the single most important thing to do is a massive expansion of development finance, to tap the world savings so that it actually supports sustainable development and climate transformation. And this is quite feasible, very practicable, actually easy to do.
If developing countries go on their own to the euro bond market, they pay 10% interest or 12% interest. Whereas if the World Bank goes to borrow or regional development bank, if properly capitalised, they can borrow with 3% or 4% interest and then lend on very favorable terms. And so this is the single most basic step that would transform prospects for the [Sustainable Development Goals] and the climate agenda.
John Kerry announces global carbon credit trading initiative
John Kerry, the US climate envoy, has unveiled a new global carbon credit trading initiative he said would be “critical” in helping developing countries transition to cleaner forms of energy.
Kerry said the new scheme, called the Energy Transition Accelerator and launched in conjunction with the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bezos Earth Fund, would generate funding through voluntary “high quality” carbon credits.
“We need to break the mould on this,” Kerry said during an event at the US pavilion at Cop27.
While the details of the program have yet to be fully fleshed out, Kerry said it was important to mobilise private capital to help deliver trillions of dollars in investment to boost renewable energy in developing countries that often struggle to secure funding for such projects.
Carbon markets, where credits that represent a certain amount of carbon pollution are bought and sold with the aim of driving down emissions, have been dogged by criticism that they do little other than burnish the green credentials of large companies. Kerry said he was aware that carbon trading has been called “greenwashing” in the past but vowed there would be strong guardrails to ensure the emissions cuts are real.
There has been a mixed initial reaction from environmental groups to the scheme.
“While creative and innovative solutions to the biggest crisis of our time are always welcome, carbon markets have, at best, a fraught record of delivering real carbon reductions, and there are a number of ways that this program could go wrong,” said Cherelle Blazer, policy campaign director at the Sierra Club.
Updated
There are just two actions needed to prevent catastrophic climate breakdown: leave fossil fuels in the ground and stop farming animals. But, thanks to the power of the two industries, both aims are officially unmentionable. Neither of them has featured in any of the declarations from the 26 climate summits concluded so far.
Astonishingly, the sectors themselves are seldom mentioned. I’ve worked through every final agreement produced by the summits since they began. Fossil fuels are named in only six of them. Just one hints at using less overall: the others propose only to improve efficiency (which, as we have known since the 19th century, can often paradoxically increase fossil fuel use), attempt technical fixes or, in the case of last year’s agreement in Glasgow, phase down “unabated” coal burning, while saying nothing about reducing oil or gas. Not one of them suggests extracting less. If fossil fuels are removed from the ground, they will be used, regardless of governments’ vague declarations about consumption.
The other omission is even starker. Livestock is mentioned in only three agreements, and the only action each of them proposes is “management”. Nowhere is there a word about reduction. It’s as though nuclear non-proliferation negotiators had decided not to talk about bombs. You cannot address an issue if you will not discuss it.
A bit of Cop history by Jason Rodrigues, from the Guardian’s research department:
The first Cop meeting was held in Berlin in March 1995, and ahead of the landmark gathering, the former environment correspondent of the Guardian Paul Brown spoke to Sir John Houghton, who helped alert the world to global heating.
The renowned Welsh physicist did not go to the climate conference, saying: “it’s up to the politicians now.” But he had hoped that Berlin would take the first steps toward slowing down global heating. The minimum requirement to do this, he believed, was a 20% cut in CO2 emissions by the industrialised countries by 2020.
The outcome of Cop1, under the presidency of Angela Merkel, the then German environment minister, was the adoption of the so-called Berlin Mandate, a precursor to the landmark Kyoto protocol of 1997.
Here is a photo of the Guardian’s interview with Sir John Houghton:
Updated
On China’s “contribution” to a loss and damage fund, the full quote is not 100% clear on whether that is a monetary contribution.
Xie Zhenhua said:
The principle of common but differentiated responsibility is based in Chinas historic responsibility; the principle that different countries should have a different level of responsibility. It is the same with loss and damage. There is not an obligation on China but we are willing to make our contribution, to make our effort.
We will investigate more.
OOPS!
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, accidentally started reading the wrong speech today.
“I’m going to speak to a group of young people afterwards and there was a small confusion. I apologise,” he told a huge crowd of attendees.
Updated
Tonight our very own Damian Carrington, the Guardian’s environment editor, is hosting a Guardian Live event (from Egypt) on how we can save humanity.
The panel includes Tessa Khan, the founder and director of Uplift, the shadow climate secretary, Ed Miliband, and Tamra Gilbertson, carbon policy organiser at the Indigenous Environmental Network.
Details are here:
Cop27: How can we save humanity from climate catastrophe?
Times are: 8pm GMT | 9pm CET | 12pm PST | 3pm EST
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More photos from today:
Updated
China willing to contribute to 'loss and damage' fund
Xie Zhenhua continues to say that Beijing is willing to contribute to a mechanism for compensating poorer countries for loss and damage caused by the climate crisis.
Xie added that China had no obligation to participate, but expressed solidarity with those calling for more action from wealthy nations on the issues.
For context on what “loss and damage” is, read this:
Updated
China envoy says US 'closed door to climate talks' and needs to reopen it.
China’s top official Cop27, Xie Zhenhua, has said Beijing and Washington are having ‘informal talks’ but the US is responsible for reopening climate discussions, according to our reporter Fiona Harvey.
US closed door to climate talks with China and has to responsibility for opening it and clearing barriers to talks says China top official Cop27 Xie Zhenhua
— Fiona Harvey (@fionaharvey) November 9, 2022
Updated
Almost half of young people in Africa say they have reconsidered having children due to the climate crisis, according to a Unicef poll of nearly a quarter of a million respondents.
Globally, two in five young people said the impacts of climate breakdown have made them reconsider their desire to start a family. This concern was highest in African regions, with the greatest percentage of young people reporting that they are reconsidering having children found in the Middle East and North Africa (44%) and sub-Saharan Africa (43%).
Paloma Escudero, the head of Unicef’s Cop27 delegation, said:
The impacts of climate change are with us now, but they are far more than floods, droughts and heatwaves. They extend to our very sense of hope.
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The delegates at Cop27 are hungry and grumpy this year. More from my colleague Patrick Greenfield:
A year ago, Irn-Bru proved an unlikely hit at Cop26 as delegates from around the world tried the Scottish delicacy for the first time. But in Egypt, the battle to find food and water at all has been a core part of the culinary experience at the climate summit.
In the first few days of Cop27, water fountains and refrigerators emblazoned with the logo of sponsor Coca-Cola stood empty in the African sun as thirsty delegates looked on. Stall workers argued with each other as the final few sandwiches, quiche slices and croissants ebbed away.
Ice-cream stands have been the only places not affected by shortages. One delegate said they had resorted to eating three ice-creams in one day.
Photos from the first couple of days at Cop27.
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World Bank president David Malpass says he is not a 'climate denier'
The World Bank president, David Malpass, has told the Guardian he is not a climate change denier.
“You know that I’m not [a climate denier]. So don’t misreport it,” he said when asked following an event at Cop27.
Malpass, a Donald Trump appointee, has previously said he did not “even know” if he accepted climate science. Joe Biden’s White House has condemned his comments.
The World Bank has repeatedly failed to adopt a strong action plan on the climate crisis, and is under growing pressure to reform to help finance the climate transition in developing countries.
I asked World Bank president @DavidMalpassWBG if he was a climate denier at #COP27 . This is what he said. pic.twitter.com/1hag04LjKV
— Patrick Greenfield (@pgreenfielduk) November 9, 2022
The bank’s president had rejected requests for interviews at Cop27 after he was delayed in South Africa before the climate summit when his plane got caught in lightning.
When approached on Wednesday, Malpass refused to answer questions about the need for World Bank reform before walking backstage.
Updated
Our environment correspondent, Fiona Harvey, has put a useful list together of how likely progress is at Cop27.
It’s terrible news for those who are still clinging to 1.5C but some surprising achievements could be grasped at the summit.
Updated
Finally, the first bonafide protest at Cop27 in the central Blue Zone of the conference, and of course it involves a Tyrannosaurus rex and Pikachu joining 50 or so activists from Asia, Africa and the Americas calling for an end to fossil fuel funding and a shift to investment in community-based renewable projects.
Dipti Bhatnagar from Friends of the Earth International in Mozambique called out the gas deal between Total and the government, which has fuelled an internal conflict and led to a million refugees.
My country is not responsible for the climate crisis, but we’re suffering the effects. Now, rich countries are out to grab the huge gas reserves, and people are being dispossessed of their land. One million people out of the 23 million population are living in refugee camps because of gas. We say no to more gas finance. We won’t let Africa burn.
Egyptian authorities have banned protests at the main conference centre where the climate negotiations are taking place, just like they are banned across the country, but surprisingly there was no sign of security shutting it down straight away. Delegates stopped to snap photos as they streamed past en route to the first events of the day.
Despite the ban, we’ll likely see more protests in the blue zone in the coming days as many activists have said they will not use the official designated protest area which is somewhere out in the desert, and nor will they be going to the Green Zone, the official activist area which is half theme park, half corporate expo space, and a 25-minute sweaty walk from the negotiations.
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Hello, and welcome to the Guardian’s live blog of the third day of Cop27, the United Nations climate conference taking place in Egypt.
The two opening days – in which leaders give speeches on their frustrations and aspirations – are over. Now it’s time for the hard work: negotiations. We’ll be expecting protests, too. Our team is in Egypt at the conference and will be sending reports.
My name is Oliver Holmes and I’ll be with you for the next few hours. You can send me questions, interesting things you’ve seen, and even rants and raves to oliver.holmes@theguardian.com or on Twitter, to @olireports.
