I should have realised what kind of summit it was going to be two months ago.
After firing off emails to Egyptian scientists, government organisations, and other experts, my inbox was strangely quiet.
Several nudges later and still no response.
COP27 has been taking place in Sharm el-Sheikh, a city between the desert of the Sinai Peninsula and the Red Sea. Rising sea levels, water scarcity and extreme weather are all concerns for this area.
But you won’t hear about those issues here.
An investigation by Human Rights Watch found that sensitive topics, including industrial pollution – which contributes to thousands of premature deaths every year in Cairo, one of the world’s most polluted cities – are all off limits.
Many working on these issues have been arrested, forced into exile or silenced.
Brave activists calling for an end to fossil-fuel funding tried to protest outside the conference centre on Wednesday morning. An hour later they had disappeared.
Egyptian authorities have banned protests here, just like they are banned across the country. The designated “official” protest area is somewhere out in the desert, miles away from the action.
Tensions also began to boil, not in the debates but as food and drink ran out at the summit. Water fountains and drinks fridges with the logo of sponsor Coca-Cola were empty. After a long queue in the sun I was charged £23 for a bag of crisps, an unappetising cheese sandwich and a bottle of pop.
Many attendees have also reported being extorted by hotels and self-catering apartments for more money, with some demanding an extra £1,500 a week. The Egyptian Hotel Association requested that five-star hotels charge a minimum of $500 a night, and three-star hotels, like where I ended up, should charge $200. My room jumped from £37 a night during the weeks before COP27, to £227 during the summit.
These exorbitant price increases are out of reach for many attending. Nigerian activist Olumide Idowu said that some delegates were forced to sleep in the bus station, while others had bookings cancelled.
More sinisterly, some have also reported overt surveillance by plain-clothed conference staff.
One eager volunteer, who I asked for directions, told me to download the official COP27 app for maps. Just the day before, cybersecurity experts warned the Egyptian authorities could be using it to access emails, photos and users’ locations.
It is now also feared that British-Egyptian pro-democracy activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah is likely to die in days, or may already be dead. He has been wrongly imprisoned for the best part of nine years and has been on hunger strike since April, on only 100 calories a day.
He escalated his protest last Sunday by refusing water. His family say he has just undergone a medical intervention.
It is no wonder that many groups within the summit feel afraid to talk freely. Egypt is not the first country to restrict environmental critics or civil protests at UN climate talks – and it won’t be the last.
Next year it will take place in the UAE, another country with an atrocious human rights record.
On Wednesday, delegates leaving were confronted by a river of sewage, which formed a stinking puddle around the shuttle buses and taxis at the exit. Let’s hope that next week’s negotiations can save the summit from turning into a disgusting mess.
