He said the prosperity – and high carbon emissions – of the rich world had been achieved at the expense of the poor in the past, and now the poor were being made to pay again, as victims of a climate collapse they did not cause. “We were the ones whose blood, sweat and tears financed the industrial revolution,” he said. “Will we now face double jeopardy by having to pay the costs as a result of these greenhouse gases from the industrial revolution? This is fundamentally unfair.” He warned of a billion climate refugees worldwide by mid-century if governments fail to tackle the climate crisis. One of the biggest issues in the talks is climate justice – the fact that poor people bear the brunt of climate damage in the form of extreme weather, while rich countries have failed to live up to their promises to cut emissions and provide funding to help the poor with climate collapse. Mottley, who was speaking at an event hosted by Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, was scathing about the World Bank, which many countries believe has not done enough to focus on climate, and countries offering loans instead of grants. “We need to take a different approach, to allow the reconstruction grants in the future, to those countries that suffer from disasters. If this does not happen, we will see an increase in climate refugees. We know that by 2050, the 21 million climate refugees in the world today will become 1 billion.” Mottley is working with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, on an initiative to provide new financing to the developing world. Macron used his speech at the Cop27 conference to insist that the war in Ukraine will not force France to back down on its commitments to tackle the climate crisis. More than 100 world leaders attended the conference on Monday, greeted by Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, who warned the world was on a “highway to hell”. He called on rich and poor governments to make a “historic deal” to help each other tackle the climate crisis, instead of fighting each other. “We are in the fight of our lives and we are losing… And our planet is fast approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible. “We’re on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the gas.” He said the world faced a stark choice in the next fortnight of talks: either developed and developing countries work together to strike a “historic pact” that would cut greenhouse gas emissions and put the world on a low-carbon path – or failure, which would bring climate collapse and disaster. “We can sign a climate solidarity pact or a collective suicide pact,” he added. He said the world has the tools it needs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in clean energy and low-carbon technology. “A window of opportunity remains open, but only a narrow shaft of light remains,” he said. “The global climate battle will be won or lost in this critical decade – right before our eyes. One thing is certain: those who give up are certain to lose.” Abdel Fatah al-Sisi speaks to Cop27. Photo: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, Egypt’s president, said in his opening speech at the summit that poor and vulnerable people around the world are already experiencing the effects of extreme weather. “The intensity and frequency of climate disasters have never been greater, in all four corners of the world, bringing a wave of suffering to billions of people. Isn’t it time today to put an end to this suffering?’ Elsewhere at the conference, Boris Johnson, the former UK prime minister, said he embodied “the spirit of Glasgow”, referring to the Cop26 conference hosted by the UK last year, which resulted in an agreement to limit global temperatures to 1 .5 degrees Celsius. Rishi Sunak, the UK’s current prime minister, refused to answer a question from the Guardian about whether the £11.6bn of UK foreign aid earmarked for climate finance in developing countries would be spent within the five-year time frame which was originally promised. Some fear he could try to cut the budget by stretching out spending over a longer period of time. Sunak also announced the extension of a global initiative to reverse deforestation by 2030, originally created at the Cop26 summit in Glasgow. Rishi Sunak with Emmanuel Macron at Cop27. Photo: Reuters Cop27 is likely to be a busy and difficult fortnight of negotiations. The countries are meeting in the shadow of the war in Ukraine, a global energy crisis and the cost of living and rising global tensions. The talks got off to a slow start, with negotiators spending more than 40 hours over the weekend wrangling over what would be on the agenda. In the end, it was agreed to discuss the vexed issue of “loss and damage”, which refers to the worst impacts of the climate crisis that are too severe for countries to adapt to. Poor countries suffering loss and damage want an economic mechanism that will give them access to finance when disasters such as hurricanes, floods and droughts strike, destroying their infrastructure and tearing apart their social fabric. These talks are unlikely to yield a final settlement on losses and damages, but countries are hoping for progress on ways to raise and disburse funding. Nabeel Munir, chief negotiator for the G77-China negotiating bloc, said loss and damage was one of the key demands for almost all developing and vulnerable climate nations. “This is the beginning of a slow and painful process, for developed and developing countries, and it was not easy to get on the agenda, but it is there and it is a beginning, and we wanted it to happen Police hosted by a developing country,” he said Munir. “It is a great achievement that the other side is starting to accept that what we are saying is fair. Loss and damage is not charity, it is climate justice.” At most UN climate summits, activists and protesters play a key role. However, Egypt represses dissent and its prisons are full of political prisoners. Sisi’s government has promised that the voices of climate activists will be heard, but their activities have been restricted, with protesters kept in a separate area and required to register in advance to be granted permission for even small demonstrations. .
