Environment

UN chief warns of ‘climate chaos’ as COP27 opens in Egypt

Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, Nov 6 (EFE).- The current state of the environment is a “chronicle of climate chaos”, United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres said on Sunday at the start of COP27, an international climate summit taking place in Sharm el Sheikh.

“As COP27 gets underway, our planet is sending a distress signal,” Guterres warned, adding that “change is happening with catastrophic speed.”

According to the latest report of the World Meteorological Organization, the last eight years have been the hottest on record, and sea levels are rising twice as fast as in the 1990s, putting millions of citizens in coastal areas at serious risk.

“People and communities everywhere must be protected from the immediate and ever-growing risks of the climate emergency,” Guterres said.

“That is why we are pushing so hard for universal early warning systems within five years.”

“We must answer the planet’s distress signal with action – ambitious, credible climate action. COP27 must be the place and now must be the time,” the UN chief said.

The summit, which will run until Nov. 18, is set to be the largest in its history, with more than 40,000 delegates expected to attend, according to the COP27 Egyptian Presidency.

At least 100 heads of state have already confirmed their attendance, including US President Joe Biden, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, among others.

One of the key points of COP27 will be addressing the losses and damages due to climate change, something that was already focused on last year in Glasgow.

A large number of countries advocated last year for a fund dedicated to the damage and losses caused by the climate crisis, a proposal that was rejected by several developed nations, including the United States. EFE

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