It is a cruel paradox. Never has climate action been so urgent as after this summer of cascading disasters. The climate crisis has hit all regions of the world, causing suffering, desolation and damage, whether it is Pakistan ravaged by water, the Horn of Africa threatened with famine by drought, China facing the worst heat wave in its history or in Europe which records its hottest and driest summer.
At the same time, the geopolitical context has never been so tense, relegating the battle for the climate to the background. While the energy, food, inflation and debt crises put pressure on countries already grappling with the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine is shaking multilateralism and favoring the use of fossils, the main cause of global warming.
It is in this context of multiple upheavals that the 27e United Nations climate conference (COP27), from November 6 to 18, in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. More than 40,000 participants from 196 countries – leaders, negotiators and civil society – are expected in the seaside resort nestled between the desert of the Sinai Peninsula and the Red Sea. This COP, presented by the Egyptian presidency as the one “implementation”from “moving from promises to action”will have to try to advance the fight against climate change or, failing that, to prevent it from slipping back.
A transitional COP
Avinash Persaud, special envoy for the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, sums up this strange state of mind at the opening of a high mass whose expectations are both “high and low”. “There is a mixture of ambition and fatalism”, he notes. A path that is all the more difficult to trace as this conference is seen by some observers as a transitional COP. A crossing point between COP26 in Glasgow (Scotland), which was held last year and was the most important since the Paris agreement in 2015, and COP28, which will take place in Dubai (United Arab Emirates ) next year and is already shaping up to be crucial, as the opportunity for the first global assessment of countries’ climate efforts.
“Each successive COP represents an opportunity that humanity cannot afford to miss”pleads Sameh Choukry, President of COP27 and Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs, in a letter addressed to the participants, on 1is november. This conference offers “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the world to come together, fix multilateralism, rebuild trust and unite at the highest political level to address climate change”, he continues. “This existential crisis must again be the fundamental priority of political action in the world”calls the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, in an interview with the Monde.
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